Catch Shares Working for fish and fishermen

Getting our foundations right…

Why do we fish?

Cod (Gadus morhua) Important fishery since 800 A.D.

With increasing demand comes increasing numbers of fishers…

Worm B, Barbier EB, Beaumont N, Duffy JE, Folke C, Halpern BS, Jackson JBC, Lotze HK, Micheli F, Palumbi SR, Sala E, Selkoe KA, Stachowicz JJ, Watson R. 2006. Impacts of Biodiversity Loss on Ocean Ecosystem Services. Science. 314: 787-760.

A story that repeats itself all over the world…

It’s not just about what we fish… but how we fish…

3 Objectives:• Protect reproduction• Protect habitat• Protect fishermen

Conventional Fishery Management

Current Problems in the Management of Marine Fisheries Science 22 June 2007: vol. 316 no. 5832 1713-1716

Input Controls

Output Controls

Gear restrictionsEffort limitsSeasonal LimitsDays-at-sea

...

Catch limitsCatch shares

SpatialControls

No TakeZone

Management toolsUncertaintyCommand and Control

Certainty and Flexibility

What are catch shares?

Catch Shares are asystem of:

Rights

Responsibilities

Rewards

Catch Shares Around the World

Why do they work?

Fishermen have a real investment in sustainability.

Fishermen are held directly accountable to stay within the catch levels.

Fishermen and managers can customize design to meet specified goals.

Catch Share Types

Individual Quota (IQ)

Individual Transferable Quota (ITQ)

Individual Vessel Quota (IVQ)

Cooperative

Community Fishing Quota (CFQ)

Area-based (TURF)

Type Allocated to… Transferable?

Individual

Individual

Vessel

Group

Community

Individual, Group or Community

No

Yes

Sometimes

Sometimes

Sometimes

Sometimes

Costello, C.S., Gaines, S., and Lynham, J. (2008) Can catch shares prevent fisheries collapse? Science 321: 1678-1681

Fisheries with Catch Shares

Fisheries without Catch Shares

Results

D. Grimm et al. / Marine Policy 36 (2012) 644–657

Results

Improve livelihoods.

Improve fishermen’s safety.

Increase product quality and revenue.

Keep fishermen within limits.

Improve biodiversity.

Reduce bycatch and waste.

Prevent fisheries and ecosystem collapse.

Black Cod

Halibut

HokiSpinyLobster

Catch Shares and MSC

Catch Shares are not a magic wand, they still need:

Organization

Monitoring and enforcement

Sound Science

Participative approach and design

Sustainable financing

Secure

Exclusive

All sources

Scaled

Accountable

Limited

Transferable

What do successful catch shares have in common?

7 Design Steps

1. Define Program Goals

2. Define and Quantify the Available Resource

3. Define Eligible Participants

4. Define the Privilege

5. Assign the Privilege

6. Develop Administrative Systems

7. Assess Performance and Innovate

Questions?