Why EDF supports catch shares

EDF supports and encourages scientifically based fishery management programs that can best return our nation’s fisheries, which have long been in decline, to sustainable health and economic stability. Numerous peer-reviewed, published studies show that catch shares bring significant conservation benefits. Catch shares prevent and reverse the collapse of fish stocks; reduce ecological waste such as fish tossed overboard, which often end up dead; protect the integrity of scientific fishing limits; and end the “race to fish” -- the fishing frenzy that produces enormous ecological bycatch waste, which conventional regulations unintentionally provoke.

Based on our review of this peer-reviewed scientific research, along with our first-hand experience in fisheries worldwide, EDF is convinced that because catch shares align conservation and economic goals, they provide the best possible means of stabilizing the world’s fisheries and ensuring fishing jobs.

In fact, studies show that catch shares consistently outperform other fishery management systems in terms of increasing biomass, decreasing wasted fish, increasing compliance with scientific limits (and ultimately leading to more fish for fishermen to catch), improving safety, increasing revenues and stabilizing local fishing economies by creating more full-time jobs. Small boat fishermen find they are able to operate more safely and efficiently, and enjoy a much higher quality of life. For the first time, they have an asset that can be sold during retirement or leased in times of illness or injury, and, because they can now choose when to fish, they are able to spend holidays and special occasions with their families.

As such, we believe catch shares are best for the resource (fish stocks), best for fishermen and fishing communities and best for the consumer.

EDF has therefore concluded that of all currently available management options, the scientific data support catch shares as the best possible means of returning our nation’s fisheries to health. However, EDF remains open to the development of alternative management plans should demonstrable scientific evidence be presented of similar or improved ecological, financial and social results.