Individual Fishing Quotas (IFQs) are now being implemented in all fisheries under the management of National Marine Fisheries Service in the United States. IFQs are a system where fishery managers set a total allowable catch (TAC) for a specific marine species and then allocates catch shares of the TAC to individual permit holders. The quota in which permit holders receive are a percentage of the TAC set for a year. The percentage is based upon the landings made under the permit for a given number of years before the IFQs were established. Under this system quotas can be sold and leased by the permit holders.
IFQs are seen as a sustainable alternative to the traditional fishery management plans. The idea is that a quota would give the permit holder a stake in fishery itself so they had some interest in maintaining the stocks and keeping them productive from year to year. Provided the TAC is not set too high a fishery would never be overfished because the quotas would not allow it.
However, the reality of the matter is much different. Such a system in which the quotas can be bought or sold is beneficial to big corporations and puts smaller owner operators at a disadvantage. IFQs open up a market where the quotas can be sold or leased allowing anyone with enough money to control part of a fishery.
I was talking to a boat captain about IFQs, and he told me he knew a bookie that saw an opportunity to buy a bunch of quotas and lease them out to make a profit without having to do much. Buying the quotas at market value and leasing them out for a large fraction of the price allowed the guy to make back his money in a few months without ever leaving dry land.
I went out on a fishing boat with said captain for 23 days on a bottom longline trip. We fished for Golden Tilefish and Yellowedge Grouper in 1300 to 800 feet of water off Texas and Louisiana, because of the deadly effects of bringing a fish up to the surface from such depths there is no size limit. The captain had a quota of Tilefish to fill and I do not pretend to understand him, but he caught a considerable amount of Tilefish early on the trip. Mid trip he dumped a few hundred pounds of the Tilefish because he found a better size class, which he thought were more marketable. Therein lies a huge problem with the quota system. The captain wasted all those fish because the fish he caught more recently were larger and would look better for his reputation.
This type of culling is common in fisheries and existed before IFQs, however, because now captains can only land so much they have incentive to throw over some fish in favor of more marketable fish.
IFQs are seen as a sustainable alternative to the traditional fishery management plans. The idea is that a quota would give the permit holder a stake in fishery itself so they had some interest in maintaining the stocks and keeping them productive from year to year. Provided the TAC is not set too high a fishery would never be overfished because the quotas would not allow it.
However, the reality of the matter is much different. Such a system in which the quotas can be bought or sold is beneficial to big corporations and puts smaller owner operators at a disadvantage. IFQs open up a market where the quotas can be sold or leased allowing anyone with enough money to control part of a fishery.
I was talking to a boat captain about IFQs, and he told me he knew a bookie that saw an opportunity to buy a bunch of quotas and lease them out to make a profit without having to do much. Buying the quotas at market value and leasing them out for a large fraction of the price allowed the guy to make back his money in a few months without ever leaving dry land.
I went out on a fishing boat with said captain for 23 days on a bottom longline trip. We fished for Golden Tilefish and Yellowedge Grouper in 1300 to 800 feet of water off Texas and Louisiana, because of the deadly effects of bringing a fish up to the surface from such depths there is no size limit. The captain had a quota of Tilefish to fill and I do not pretend to understand him, but he caught a considerable amount of Tilefish early on the trip. Mid trip he dumped a few hundred pounds of the Tilefish because he found a better size class, which he thought were more marketable. Therein lies a huge problem with the quota system. The captain wasted all those fish because the fish he caught more recently were larger and would look better for his reputation.
This type of culling is common in fisheries and existed before IFQs, however, because now captains can only land so much they have incentive to throw over some fish in favor of more marketable fish.
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