Catch shares ensure fishing communities prosper and thrive

There are as many kinds of fishing communities as there are kinds of fish and because catch shares are flexible they can work for all types. Catch shares have been designed to make sure fishing communities prosper and thrive, from the small fishing community of Chatham, MA to the large fishing community in Dutch Harbor-Unalaska, AK.

At the end of the day, though, all fishing communities have one thing in common: they all depend on healthy, productive fish stocks. Most importantly, catch shares help fishing communities by helping to bring back fish.

Catch shares have succeeded where conventional management failed

Conventional fisheries management has not worked for fishing communities. Tens of thousands of jobs have disappeared, and the work that remains is generally short-term and dangerous. Furthermore, the FAO and World Bank recently reported that worldwide mismanagement of fisheries is costing us up to 50 billion dollars annually in lost value.¹ Imagine how communities could benefit from more fish of increased value coming over their docks and from restoring fish populations to healthy levels in order to safely catch more fish over time.

Many communities have already benefited under catch shares. For example, Dutch-Harbor-Unalaska, Alaska has been the country’s top port in amount of fish landed for 20 consecutive years. Over 612 million pounds of fish and shellfish, mostly pollock, were landed in 2008, for a total value of $195 million. Jim Balsiger, the former NOAA assistant administrator for NOAA’s Fisheries Service said,

"The long-term success of the port of Dutch Harbor-Unalaska comes partly from the fact that many of the fish species landed there are managed under some of the nation’s most advanced catch share programs … Catch-share programs increase fishermen’s safety by eliminating the race to fish. They ensure sustainable fishing, reduce overcapacity in the industry and improve profitability of fisheries for coastal communities."²

Catch share flexibility meets different communities' needs

Catch shares can be designed for a wide range of outcomes—and some have been designed with the primary goal being to promote specific communities. For example, when Alaska fisheries began implementing catch shares, they instituted the Community Development Quota (CDQ) program to benefit fishing dependent communities in Western Alaska. CDQs received 20% of the halibut and sablefish quota from stocks adjacent to their community and receive 10% of the quota for new catch share fisheries.

The CDQs are designed to keep the shares and the revenues from the shares in the community. There are now six non profit companies working under the CDQ program and "They provide thousands of jobs and scholarships and such things as boat repair, tax assistance, cash dividends to communities and a variety of other programs."³

The catch share for Alaska halibut and sablefish is a similar example of how catch share design was used to promote community goals. In this case, the goal was to maintain the character of the fleet and fishing communities, particularly by promoting owner-operated vessels and preventing consolidation. Several limitations were placed on quota leasing and transfer as part of the program design. For example, transfers can only occur between owners of the same vessel class, and fishermen can not hold more than 1% of the overall quota each year. The program also limits absentee ownership by placing limitations on hired skippers.

There have been cases when catch shares were designed to maximize different goals than maintaining certain fishing communities. For example, New Zealand’s catch shares were specifically designed to increase the economic output of the fishery. They met that particular goal – the value of the fishery increased almost three and a half times over the past two decades - but there were costs to some fishing communities such as a reduction in the number of participants.

Bottom line

At the end of the day, catch shares provide a mechanism for ensuring productive fishing futures for communities, at a time when that future otherwise looks uncertain. And the bottom line is that design of catch shares matters for communities. American fisheries and communities can and should design catch shares that make sense for them.