Trawl fishing sees overhaul
Trawl fishing sees overhaul
John Driscoll/The Times-Standard
Article Launched: 11/12/2008 01:26:58 AM PST
Federal regulators will soon consider approving a major overhaul of one of the West Coast's most valuable fisheries hashed out by the Pacific Fishery Management Council last week.
The council adopted significantly different means of managing trawl fishing that it says will reduce waste and be safer and more profitable for fishermen.
The management regime, if approved by the National Marine Fisheries Service, would simplify how bottom-dwelling fish like sole, rockfish, sharks, skates and whiting are managed. It would allow individual fishing vessels to hold catch quotas, keep observers on boats to account for the catch, and allow fishermen to fish at any time -- corresponding with good weather and market conditions.
About 140 trawlers fish for groundfish on the West Coast, in a fishery worth about $61 million a year, with between 10 and 15 fishing out of Eureka. Under the new management, each would get a federal permit to harvest a certain quantity of fish. That individual fishing quota -- or IFQ -- can be transferred, leased or sold to captains, crews, communities, fish processors or environmental groups, according to the fishery management council.
In order to avoid large operators from accumulating too many IFQs, the program puts limits on how many IFQs can be held. But permit holders can get out of the fishery with some compensation if, for example, their boat is inefficient, or if they want to retire. In the whiting fishery, processors would be allowed up to 20 percent of the annual catch. But in the more nearshore trawl fishery, fishermen were allocated 90 percent of the fish, with 10 percent of the catch available to meet goals set by the council, like conservation objectives.
The allocation of shares to processors was opposed by the Fishermen's Marketing Association, which represents trawlers. The association held that IFQs were a beneficial move for the fishery, but that allowing processors to get a share of the catch takes fish away from fishermen, and gives it to big fish companies, making a bad economic scenario for fishermen worse. They also questioned its compliance with the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.
”The FMA position was that allocation to processors was something that is not provided for under Magnuson,” wrote association Executive Director Pete Leipzig after the Friday meeting. “This will need to be reviewed by NMFS and NOAA before this allocation can be approved.”
The current management has long drawn ire from both fishermen and conservation groups. With trip limits and harvest quotas that applied to the whole fleet, fishermen were often forced to throw fish over the side when they went over their limit in an effort to catch their full share.
The new management regime makes quotas for individual vessels. It also puts federally approved observers on board all boats, which gives ecologically minded fishermen an incentive to use gear that doesn't seriously affect certain species, said Shems Jud, a fisheries policy coordinator for the Environmental Defense Fund.
Observers can help fishermen show how “cleanly” they are fishing, which allows them to keep more fish from healthy stocks, Jud said.
”We feel that overall the vote on Friday was a huge win for both the resource and the fishermen,” Jud said.
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