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Stock Stewardship Discussion
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Stock Stewardship/Biomass Allocations
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If you would like to post a comment on this subject, please send your contributions to me (Dick Allen) at rba@FisheryConsulting.com for posting. I will post both positive and negative comments on the subject, but I reserve the right to prevent my web site from becoming cluttered with material that is not relevant to the discussion, or is otherwise unacceptable to me. I will publish any acceptable submission without editing. In any case where I consider the material to be generally worthwhile, but for some reason unacceptable, I will offer the contributor the opportunity to alter the objectionable content. If you don't want your contact information published, please do not include it in the body of your message.
I may open the page for direct submissions if I gain more confidence that it will not be vandalized or misused.
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Subject Stock Stewardship Shares Letter to NEFMC
Date
Mon Jan 24 2005 14:42
Author Dick Allen
(rba@FisheryConsulting.com)
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Dear Council Members:
The New England fishing community and the Council are clearly interested in the potential for sector allocations to improve the management of the region's fisheries. I'd like to suggest that stock stewardship shares would be preferable to catch shares in any allocation program. The difference is that a share of the fish stock creates a conservation incentive and the ability for shareholders to conserve in a way that is not possible with catch shares.
The primary impediment to fishery conservation is the disincentive for any individual or group to leave fish in the water, knowing that someone who did not make a comparable sacrifice will either catch the fish left behind, or benefit equally from the conservation investment. Catch shares do not eliminate that problem - any person or group that does not catch their share will find them-selves sharing that investment with the entire fleet. Under a catch share system, when a stock assessment shows an improvement in the stock, the increase will be distributed among all of the sectors, despite the fact that one sector may have left fish to grow and reproduce while another did not. Catch shares give someone the right to catch fish, but not to conserve fish.
Experience has shown that sector allocations have two significant problems. First, with catch shares rather than stock stewardship shares, no one can conserve more than the uniform standard, despite the fact that some sectors may wish to conserve more. The second major flaw creates a double whammy, and perhaps a triple, for sectors that stay within their catch quota compared to those who do not. If one sector exceeds its catch quota, other sectors automatically pay a price in reduced availability of fish. They also pay a price when the stock assessment shows that the stock is lower than expected and all sector shares must be reduced. In the worst case, sectors that did not exceed their quota may be required to pay back the overage that was taken by someone else.
Stock stewardship shares overcome these problems by allocating portions of the fish stock, rather than the catch. A catch share implies that there is a certain fish stock in the ocean that produces that catch. The stock can be apportioned in the same way that the catch is. The stock in the ocean is affected by two categories of impacts: non-human and human. The only quantifiable human impact on a stock is the catch, including discard mortality. So a sector's impact on the stock that produces its catch share can be measured by its catch, factoring in discard mortality as is done now. The impact of non-human factors is the same on all of the stock shares within a common biological stock. Stock stewardship shares give a sector greater responsibility and accountability for maintaining the health of the stock, rather than simply staying within a catch quota that is determined by someone else. A sector can build up its stock by catching less than a uniform standard might allow, and be assured that the surplus will not be automatically distributed to other sectors as it would in a catch share system.
The scientific basis for stock stewardship shares was developed by Canadian fishery scientist Stratis Gavaris in a 1996 article in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries. It can be accessed at:
http://ginkgo.cisti.nrc.ca/ppv/RPViewDoc?_handler_=HandleInitialGet&journal=cjfas&volume=53&articleFile=f96-088.pdf&calyLang=eng
As Gravaris sees it, a portion of a population would be "endowed to the care of a group of like-minded fishers and identified as an EMU (Elementary Management Unit). This achieves the objective of attributing value to uncaught fish and partitioning that value in a manner that limits the impact of decisions by an EMU on others."
Essentially, Gavaris suggests the creation of bank accounts in which Mother Nature makes all of the deposits and the account holder decides on how much to withdraw and how much to leave in the account to collect interest. Rather than applying the total catch against the total stock, each sector's catch is applied against its stock stewardship share. Traditional stock assessments are used to track any difference between what Mother Nature actually did to the stock in the ocean, compared to what she was expected to do by the model that credits the stock accounts with deposits in the form of recruitment.
I believe that Stratis Gavaris provided a scientifically sound method for resolving some of our most difficult fishery policy issues. Stock stewardship shares are a natural complement to sector allocations. They hold the promise of eliminating much of the bickering that would otherwise accompany the perceived impact of one sector on another.
I hope that you will consider making stock stewardship shares the basis for sector allocations. If this concept gains traction, I would further suggest that sector operating agreements be viewed as stock stewardship contracts, in recognition of the conservation incentives that will be created under such a system.
Thank you for your consideration of these ideas.
Dick Allen
35 Bliss Rd.
Wakefield, RI 02879
(401) 789-1463
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