West Coast Groundfish Regulators Favor Individual Quota System

By Winston Ross, The Register-Guard, Eugene, Ore.

Jun. 13–West Coast groundfishermen can expect a major change in the way they’re allowed to catch fish in the coming years, after a preliminary decision Thursday from the Pacific Fishery Management Council.

The council voted in favor of an individual quota system that will determine who gets to catch how many fish. Shares of the resource will be allocated, and can be traded, sold or kept for life.

The decision isn’t final unless it’s affirmed by the council at its November meeting, but fishermen say they expect the recommendation to stand, in part because there’s nearly universal support for a quota system among processors, trawlers and conservationists.

The reason: Quota systems reduce “bycatch,” fish accidentally caught along with the target species. The fish may be perfectly good but are often thrown overboard because a trawler doesn’t have the right to haul in as much of the nontargeted species. With a quota system, a trawler could keep the extra bycatch but would have to barter with someone else who owns quota rights in order to legally bring it in.

Another reason for an expected reduction in bycatch is that the fleet will no longer operate under a “derby” system, whereby all West Coast groundfishermen are allowed to catch a certain amount of a particular fish in a certain period of time. The result is that they race out to bring in those fish once given the go-ahead, even if the weather or location might not be good for bycatch reduction. With quotas, fishermen can relax about when they set gear in the ocean, knowing they’re guaranteed a certain amount of pounds of groundfish such as snapper, flounder, cod and other bottom-dwelling fish. They can make smart decisions that lead to less fish accidentally caught.

“We did a study of the (individual fishing quota) fisheries in the U.S. and Canada,” said Shems Jud, fisheries policy coordinator with the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund, which advocated that the council implement quotas. “The average discard reduction is 40 percent. It’s really tremendous.”

What’s not so tremendous, said Pete Leipzig, executive director of the Fisherman’s Marketing Association, is that the council is recommending that a 20 percent share of the initial quota allocation be given to processors. That issue has been the main point of contention between fishermen and processors in recent years, with each side warning that the other intends to monopolize the resource.

“Issuing shares to processors is a blow, particularly at the level of 20 percent,” Leipzig said. “This is something I was not anticipating.”

Processors have argued for a share of the quota because they’ve invested millions of dollars in infrastructure in coastal communities, and having a piece of the resource will help ensure that smaller ports aren’t abandoned.

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