Tag Archives: Catch Shares
Maryland assigning commercial fishermen catch shares – will have individual quotas of striped bass
State fisheries officials say they’re not trying to hurt watermen. “Whenever you have a major change like this … you have winners and losers,” said Tom O’Connell, state fisheries director. “It sorts itself out.” Read more@baltimoresun 00:57
The EDF road to catch shares for charter and headboats
The road to “catch shares” for charter and headboat operators is being paved with an Environmental Defense Fund-backed pilot program approved by NOAA Fisheries this year for the Gulf of Mexico. [email protected] 10:30
Capt. Dave Marciano: Catch shares for tuna could end fishery
The end of the tuna fishery has begun. No one thought that giving one group of selected wealthy individuals their own special quota in the guise of conservation would lead to the demise of the groundfish fleet on Gloucester. But, yes, the greed-driven thugs got ideas as to how they could steal the resource for themselves. The weeks leading up to Christmas have historically been a very busy time for fishermen, but now, five years or so later, Gloucester Harbor is a dead stick. more@gdt 11:37
Catch shares for halibut charters set to begin in Southeast, Central GOA – NOAA to implement halibut catch sharing plan in 2014
NOAA Fisheries is implementing a halibut catch sharing plan for the commercial and charter halibut fisheries in Southeast Alaska (Area 2C) and the Central Gulf of Alaska (Area 3A). Prior to the catch sharing plan, the charter sector was managed under a guideline harvest level—a management program that was not optimal in preventing fishing overages when harvest of halibut by recreational anglers on charter vessels increased in areas 2C and 3A beginning in the late 1990s. more@fishradio 15:40
Keep ‘catch shares’ out of Gulf of Alaska fisheries
Catch shares, also known as rationalization, transfers fishery access rights away from the general public and into the hands of current stakeholders by dividing up the annual catch into shares, called quota, and granting lifetime rights to quota owners. Shares can be bought, sold and leased on a largely unregulated market and typically result in massive consolidation of ownership and a transfer of fishing rights away from active fishermen, who cannot compete with the larger investment community in the market for these capital assets. more@alaskadispatch 05:51
Marciano: Remember when we were all out there fishing and complaining about how bad the rules under days at sea management were?
Oh that’s right — the latter never happened, and the former was a hell of a lot better than where the industry is now. Seems as though it’s a surprise that there’s no help from the pols, on top of the desperate state of the sectors now. Sectors are functioning in the groundfishery exactly as every other fishery catch shares program or any other of the thousand or so experiments before this one. more@GDT 05:47
Commercial anglers aren’t hoarding snapper
I read with astonishment Capt. Bob Zales II’s opinion in The News Herald (“Red snapper fishing ‘haves’ are suing the ‘have-nots’,” letter, July 14) concerning the commercial red snapper fisherman’s lawsuit (Guindon v. Pritzker) filed June 28 in Washington, D.C. continued@newsherald
Is there an alternative to IFQ’s, catch shares, and privatized fishing? Alaska Fish Radio
This is Fish Radio. I’m Stephanie Mangini. Is there an alternative to IFQ’s, catch shares, and privatized fishing? More after this … .continued@fishradio
In depth article: Climate Change Impacts Ripple Through Fishing Industry While Ocean Science Lags Behind
Huffington Post – With a limberness that defies his 69 years, Frank Mirarchi heaves himself over the edge of a concrete wharf and steps out onto a slack, downward sloping dock line bouncing 20 feet above the lapping waters near Scituate, Mass. continued
BULLARD, SHELLEY, and COD: or Fish Being and Nothingness – Featured Writer Dick Grachek
“Returning Our New England Fisheries to Profitability”: “You’re doin’ a great job, Brownie” aka, Janie, Johnny, Petey. You should be proud. Mission Accomplished?
In her resignation email Lubchenco made the gravity-defying claim that she had made “notable progress” in “ending overfishing, rebuilding depleted stocks, and returning fishing to profitability”; but soon after, John Bullard “In an interview at the Times, Bullard said the telling figure was that the fleet caught only 54 percent of the allowed catch in 2012, and reasoned from that statistic that there is a dearth of inshore cod, a situation that warrants serious action to reverse.” Richard Gaines March 8, 2013 Gloucester Daily Times, “NOAA head explains stock stand”
Peter Shelley of Conservation Law Foundation explains the Cod Dilemma in a wormy little video he so humorously named “For Cod’s Sake”…..continued
Can the small family-owned boats survive or will the remaining fishermen wind up as sharecroppers for someone else’s fleet?
continued
Fish on Fridays: A ‘Day of Reckoning’ for the New England Groundfishery by Michael Conathan and a real ass kicking rebuttal
Center for American Progress – On May 1, 2013, New England’s groundfishermen began operating under a harsh new set of catch limits that will curtail fishing effort and inflict massive economic pain on an industry that’s already struggling to remain afloat. As fishermen come to grips with their new regulations, and regulators fret about the impact that their unpopular decisions will have on one of America’s most historic industries, we should take a moment to consider the fate of a similar fishery just a few hundred miles northwest. continued Link to a real slam against this foolishness by our own Dick Grachek here
Pictures of lobster boats that are supposed to represent the ground fish fleet! lol
Three years into catch shares, fishing industry faces ‘Day of Reckoning’
NEW BEDFORD — Sharp new cuts in fishing quotas mark the start today of the fourth year of fishing catch shares and sector management in the Northeast, NOAA’s prescription for rebuilding fish stocks and streamlining the fishing industry. But the fishermen who now see their quotas of some fish cut by more than 70 percent, who see their livelihood evaporating before their eyes, who are losing homes to foreclosure, insist, without contradiction, that they have done everything NOAA Fisheries has asked them to do in the past three years, and years before that. sadly, continued
26 members of Congress urge House Appropriations Committee to reject funding Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico catch shares until rewrite of the MSA
A total of 26 members of Congress, including Rep. John Tierney, have urged the House Appropriations Committee to reject funding for new catch share fishery management programs in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico until the House Natural Resources Committee completes its rewrite of the Magnuson-Stevens Act….The Northeast groundfish catch share program, whose coverage includes Gloucester and New England, was created without an industry referendum and has mixed with new rigid requirements for the rebuilding of overfished stocks to leave the fishery in a statutory disaster. continued
The Catch 22 of New England Fisheries’ Catch Share Scheme
“Man, I was gonna hit it big,” Maxfield recalls. “When I started, I saw myself in an industry where the average age of a captain was around 55 or 60, and I’m thinking, well, these guys are gonna start retiring.” He began saving money toward buying his own boat. Maxfield, now 36, has his boat at last — but no groundfish to catch with it. Cod stocks in the Gulf of Maine have cratered. continued
Who Owns Fish Under Briberization?
Susanne Rust’s “Who owns the fish?” is a well written and insightful piece. But, like all Catch Share authors, including myself, we are still learning how to really describe what is going on – having been overly influenced by the language of the wordsmiths brainwashing Congress and the public about quotas. With all good intention, here’s an expanded Opinion Piece to go with the March 12 article.,,,,,,,,,,.Catch shares are really about asymmetric market power —especially by cartelized processors with plenary power over price-setting— being brought about under government sponsorship due to accompanying asymmetric political power. Nothing makes that clearer that the rigged witness list at today’s US House Natural Resources meeting (see Richard Gaines’ Gloucester Daily Times Editorial-Witness-list-shows-Magnuson-talks-a-sham-from-start ). John Pappalardo is a minor part of the national problem, as he was schooled by the real culprits of Alaska Ratz, some of whom are also on the rigged hearing witness list. continued
Small time fishermen fight for their survival
BREWSTER —Just as big eat the little fish in the sea, Cape Cod’s fishing fleet is being swallowed by larger pockets that are buying the available quota of cod and other catch. Can the small family-owned boats survive or will the remaining fishermen wind up as sharecroppers for someone else’s fleet? “It would be nice to think if we wanted to go fishing we didn’t have to work for anybody else but with consolidation it doesn’t seem to be going that way,” said Jason Amaru, who fishes ground fish put of Chatham. Read moreEditorial: Division of Marine Fisheries chief Paul Diodati’s stand shows catch shares killing fishery
Noting that he shares the concerns of the relatively few state-permitted, small-boat fishermen, he made it clear that the shortage of fish within those fishermen’s usual grounds is due in large part to the fact that more and more big boats — “unencumbered by trip limits …particularly on Gulf of Maine Cod when they are aggregated for migration, feeding (and) spawning, has significantly contributed to declines in local abundance.” Read more
“The big boats are taking over and they’re killing the little guys off,” Small fishermen’s plight discussed at forum in city
PORTSMOUTH — Participants in the Who Fishes Matters Tour fisheries forum Monday night discussed ways to improve the beleaguered catch share system of fisheries management. Read more
Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance nervous – Gulf snapper quota reallocation could set national precedent
An upcoming decision on quota allocation between recreational and commercial fishermen will be vital in setting a precedent for fisheries management all over the US, said sources on all sides of the ongoing red snapper fishery disc
ussions in the Gulf of Mexico. Read more here
Catch shares tied to cod losses – State fisheries chief cites lack of controls under NOAA system
The 2010 catch share commodification of the Northeast groundfishery, hailed by advocates including NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco as a sure path to restoring overfished stocks and profitability for the fleet, has had the opposite effect on Gulf of Maine cod, according to the state’s director of marine fisheries.
The habit of bigger offshore boats to accumulate catch shares in Gulf of Maine cod and capitalize on pulses of the cod with landings far larger than 800 pounds has “significantly contributed to declines in local abundance” of the essential fish for the day boats, state fisheries chief Paul Diodati said in a memo sent Feb. 5 to the Marine Fisheries Advisory Commission and obtained by the Times. Read more here
Feds see early signs of Pacific fishery recovery
HALF MOON BAY, Calif. (AP) – After one of the West Coast’s most valuable commercial fisheries was declared an economic disaster in 2000, California and other Pacific states saw more boats being sold and more fishermen looking for work. Read more here
North Pacific Council talks economic data collection – vessel replacement for American Fisheries Act boats in the Gulf of Alaska
PORTLAND, Ore. — The North Pacific Fishery Management Council discussed how it will evaluate central Gulf of Alaska rationalization today. Read more here 
The North Pacific Fishery Management Council took action this morning to continue working on vessel replacement for American Fisheries Act boats in the Gulf of Alaska. Read more here
Catch shares constitute best free-market solution
Catch shares are the best solution to dwindling fish stocks. They provide for more stable consumer prices, prevent overfishing, empower fishermen and reduce inefficient government regulation. Read more here
One fisherman’s tale shows plight of many -Richard Gaines – gloucester daily times
For a gillnet fisherman, these are trying times — with worse yet to come. Captain Don Smith, a 57-year-old transplanted Mainer whose family roots are in Nova Scotia and has fished commercially from Gloucester for more than 30 y
ears, doesn’t need to be prodded to speak to that…… Making life more difficult for the small boats are the big boats; these “trip” boats that traditionally worked offshore on the more distant Georges Bank. But the catch share trading system imposed by federal regulators in 2010 has liberated them to acquire quota from non-participants or day boats, and — no longer limited by daily catch limits —they have been induced to chase the pulses of cod onto Stellwagen, where they flaunt their scale and have their way. Read more here
Op-Ed: Moving forward in the Gulf: Reduce bycatch but protect Alaska’s communities
Just allocating shares easily turns into a windfall for some followed by a fairly predictable concentration of wealth. For example, if catch shares are bought and sold, fishing privileges become consolidated into the hands of fewer owners with the most access to financial capital – and skipper and crew jobs are lost. If shares are allowed to take on the character of a perpetual property right, fishing practices can become institutionalized even if they should be modified for conservation or fairness. High capital cost of entering the fishery becomes a barrier to the next generation. Flight of access to fisheries resources from coastal communities can lead to a cascade of social, cultural and economic hardships. Read more
Sharecroppers of the Sea – Alaska story hitting home in New England. Hard.
Guys like Jared Bright vie for control of the industry’s lower rungs, the only rungs that seem to be left. Simply put, they’re renters. They don’t own the halibut, not even when it lands in their boats. The fish are instead the property of a generation of wealthy owners, most of whom did nothing more than fish in the right place at the right time to get a stake.
Their ownership rights came courtesy of the federal government. At the time, it was a good idea. In ways, it still is. But it’s created what amounts to a feudal system over a natural resource.
It’s a system, called catch shares, that the government and environmental groups will tell you is the best thing to happen to fish since catch limits. But fishermen in the halibut and black-cod industry—the first in the country to live with the bizarre realities of these new policies—have weathered its real consequences, outcomes that fly in the face of more official, rosy portrayals. Outcomes like absentee landlords, brokers and bankers, fish quota that costs more than your house, and a new generation of people cluttering their hulls, demanding sandwiches. Read more
The EDF Fish Tale of Bubba and Miguel
An article written by some former WWF stooge that never caught a fish for a living about a guy named Bubba that didn’t like being a fisherman. http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2012/11/20/catch-shares-save-fishermen-and-fish/
ABOLISH CATCH SHARES NOW!
FLASHBACK! John Kerry – “Lubchenco is your friend,” February 2010 To leave the Fish Wars as Secretary of Defense?
Kerry released the following statement to the Times yesterday in response to a request about his position on Magnuson. “The status quo isn’t working, and I say that as someone who is passionate about the environment, but who can see plainly that people are hurting and there are legitimate issues that have to be fixed. “I’m going to be talking with fishing and environmental experts at the state and federal level to develop sustainable fisheries in New England and work with the New England delegation, as I always have, to keep federal assistance flowing into Massachusetts for our fishing families and to rebuild the fisheries.” http://www.gloucestertimes.com/local/x966804462/Kerry-to-fishermen-Lubchenco-your-friend
No offense Senator,,,,,,,,,,screw it, Senator Kerry, you thought then, as you do now, that its all about frittering out a few bucks to to the victims of President Obama’s US Commerce Department, the New England Fishing Industry. You have been ineffective Senator, and I’m done beating the drum for you. You have not delivered, Senator.
Please, John Kerry, just go away! http://bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1061174640
Election alters fishing’s landscape GDT.- Barney’s Gone. Scott’s Gone. Huge Ramification’s, and they ain’t good.
“Elizabeth Warren will be the champion of the fishing industry,” Ferrante predicted in an interview Wednesday. “She has experience up against Wall Street, big oil, and lost the chance to open the consumer financial protection bureau because of her feuding with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner when Obama refused to submit her name for Senate confirmation.http://www.gloucestertimes.com/local/x1499661062/Election-alters-fishings-landscape
millionaires and billionaires…beep…..millionaires and billionaires…beep…..
