US fisheries managers in New England, beleaguered by overfishing and an infamously collapsed cod stock, are trying a system of transferable quotas within cooperatives of fishermen.
New England was hit hard by the total collapse of the enormous cod stock off Eastern Canada and Northeastern USA in the early 1990s. Over the last 20 years, authorities regulating fisheries in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine have placed a web of restrictions on fishermen, centered on how many days they can fish. In many cases fishermen have recently been allowed just 20 days at sea in a year.
Yet while some fish populations are doing better, most have not been restored to levels that scientists say will sustain fishing long-term – and that the law requires. Today, only red fish and haddock are in robust shape and twelve species off New England are considered overfished, according to the report in the Boston Globe.
In the new system, already applied for two co-ops on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, groups of fishermen will be able to form cooperatives that would then be allotted a total amount of fish to catch each year. Then fishermen in each cooperative, or “sector”, would work out among themselves how to divvy up this quota.
The new rules, scheduled to take effect next May, will create 17 more such groups in New England for vessels who go after cod, flounder and other bottom-dwelling species.
The idea, according to the Boston Globe, is to give fishermen more flexibility, allowing them to avoid dangerous weather and end the practice of discards, throwing dead fish overboard if they catch more than permitted.
The system is voluntary, but fishermen opposing it say that the disadvantages of staying out force them to accept it. Their main concerns deal with the control system, which they fear will be overwhelming, and the way reference points will be set up for the allotted quotas.
Other parties protest a public resource this way being divided up and privatised, and contend that it will keep out new fishermen.
Supporters point out that the cooperatives do not own fish populations – fisheries managers will still decide how much can be taken out of them each year.
“Done correctly, this is the last best chance we have to have a viable New England fishery and rebuild the stocks,” said Peter Baker, director of the Pew Environment Group’s “End Overfishing in New England” campaign, which has pushed hard for the cooperatives.