Why EDF supports catch shares

Overfishing is one of the greatest threats to the world’s oceans. Recent peer reviewed science estimates that 64% of global fisheries are depleted below the levels required to sustain production. Environmental Defense Fund believes that in order to solve the threat of overfishing, we must find a solution that is not only sustainable for our fisheries, but also for the fishermen and communities that depend on them.

Ecological health and economic health can go hand in hand. EDF is proud of our efforts to advance catch shares, a proven solution to overfishing that is rebuilding depleted fish populations and ensuring many fishermen stable and more profitable jobs.

Conventional management has largely failed to recover many fisheries. Declining fish catch has translated into lost jobs and lost economic opportunity: the World Bank estimates that over the last thirty years, mismanaged fisheries have cost the global economy $2 trillion—about $50 billion per year.

Consolidation of the U.S. fishing industry has been happening for generations -- long before catch shares were introduced. Fishermen in the United States are all too familiar with the decades of job loss and consolidation that have occurred because of the outdated management systems once prevalent in U.S. commercial fisheries. The combination of previous overfishing, mismanagement of the fisheries and new impacts from climate change has perpetuated consolidation in many fisheries, in some cases even after the implementation of catch shares.

While this consolidation has been difficult for fishermen, new policy tools can help -- while going back to the old, failed system would be disastrous. In New England, for example, EDF has advocated for concentration limits, a common feature in most modern catch shares, to protect small operators and to ensure that no one fisherman holds too large a stake in the fishery.

Catch shares are delivering other important improvements. Fishermen in New England reported far fewer wasted fish and far more stability in prices in the first years of their “Sectors” program, a form of catch shares management. Gulf of Mexico red snapper fishermen have seen increases in how much fish they can catch, better prices for their catch and a serious reduction in waste.

Government reports and peer-reviewed science confirm these results. Catch shares have reduced waste and provided economic stability in fisheries where unpredictability and low-wage, unstable jobs were the norm. That's why it is crucial for fishermen and fishery managers to continue to have the option of adopting catch shares, as well as other approaches that demonstrate the same high level of ecological and socio-economic performance of catch shares.

With 3 billion people worldwide who depend on seafood for protein, we also have a moral imperative to restore fisheries across the globe so that our generation and future generations can count on this important source of food and livelihoods.

Not only will it provide untold ecological benefits, but moving global fisheries into sustainable management will pump billions of dollars into the economy and ultimately improve the lives of fishermen. The road may not be easy but the status quo of global fishery depletion is an option no one can afford. Choosing to stay on course when you are in a downward spiral is not the solution.

EDF is proud to work with hundreds of fishermen from all types of fisheries around the world. We believe that ending overfishing will only happen if we are working together to find a solution.

More Facts about Catch Shares and Overfishing

Strong independently peer reviewed and published scientific evidence shows that catch shares outperform other management approaches, and as such, EDF promotes their adoption. For example, peer-reviewed science shows that well designed catch shares:

• Prevent, and even reverse the collapse of fish stocks (Costello et al., 2008)
• Ensure fishermen comply with scientific catch limits ending overfishing (Branch, 2008)
• End the race for fish-- the fishing frenzy that produces enormous ecological bycatch waste, which conventional regulations unintentionally provoke. (Essington, 2010)
• Stabilize fishery landings and catch limits (Essington, 2010)
• Reduce ecological waste, such as discards and bycatch (Branch, 2008; Essington 2010)

Catch shares work because they align fishermen's incentives with the health of the oceans, and under catch shares fishermen are held accountable to meeting high performance standards. Specifically, individuals or groups of fishermen are assigned "shares" of the total allowable catch and have a year-round season to harvest their portion. The catch limit rises as fish populations recover, giving fishermen a strong economic motivation to fish sustainably. This means that catch shares bring significant socio-economic benefits as well as conservation improvements, including:

• higher revenues,
• safer, more full-time jobs, and
• longer, and more stable fishing seasons.