Johanna Thomas: 'Catch share' process can help fisheries

If you've bought wild salmon recently you undoubtedly got hit with some serious sticker shock. Retail prices have nearly doubled from last year because the fish have largely disappeared off the California coast. If you're a fisherman, the shock is worse: Salmon is off limits to recreational and commercial harvests, leaving fishermen in a state of crisis. Unfortunately, the problems aren't just limited to salmon. Other fisheries such as Pacific rockfish, marketed as "red snapper," are also in trouble.

West Coast landings of rockfish or groundfish plunged by 70 percent during the last two decades, from an average of 74,000 tons in the 1980s to 22,214 tons in 2007. Revenues from the groundfish fell by more than half from 1997 to 2007, from $47.3 million to $22.2 million. In 2000, the U.S. Department of Commerce declared the fishery a disaster, due to major declines in nine of 82 species of groundfish. Today, the Pacific Fishery Management Council, which governs West Coast fishing, lists seven species of rockfish as overfished.

The problem is not the fishermen. Fishermen have done everything that fishery managers have asked them to do. With fisheries continuing to fail, perhaps now is the time to reconsider the direction we've been taking with fishery management.

On June 8, the Pacific Fishery Management Council, one of eight regional councils governing fishing in U.S. waters, will meet in California on the future of Pacific groundfish. The council has an opportunity to incorporate management measures for harvesting Pacific groundfish that have worked well to recover fisheries in other regions. Opportunities to make fishing more profitable and sustainable also will be considered during a hearing today of the Joint Legislative Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture in the Legislature's annual Fisheries Forum.

Historically, fishery management councils have responded to crisis through measures such as shorter fishing seasons and smaller daily limits. Instead of reducing the catch as intended, such regulations set up a "race for fish." The consequence has been dangerous fishing conditions, larger investments in boats and gear, a market glut and associated environmental damage. There are substantially better management techniques.

In several places in the United States and globally, fishermen have been given the right conservation incentives and accountability to fish more efficiently, conserve the resource and bring in better quality fish at a higher price. Similar to the current plight of U.S. Pacific groundfish, British Columbia was experiencing steep declines in groundfish landings in the mid-1990s. As a result, fishermen were put under increased regulations, raced to bring in as many fish as possible and received a lower price for their fish when the market was flooded.

In 1997, British Columbia launched a catch share program for their groundfish fleet. This program gave each boat a guaranteed "share" of the allowable rockfish catch for the year based on a combination of each vessel's catch history and size. The guarantee allowed fishermen to fish at their own pace. Since they could fish when prices were best, they could make a higher profit on fewer fish. In 1996, 29,000 tons of groundfish were landed in British Columbia with revenues worth $21 million. In 2000, 26,000 tons of groundfish – 10 percent less than in 1996 – yielded more than a 60 percent increase in revenue, $34 million. And the program required a scientific observer to be aboard the boat, which provided better data about the health of the fishery and served as a basis for better fishery management decisions.

A similar catch share program is up for vote by the Pacific Fishery Management Council in June. It is critical that the council get this one right. With the correct safeguards in place and tools for fishermen, Pacific groundfish can experience the same comeback as was experienced in British Columbia. Much depends on what opportunities and flexibility fishermen have to make the right choices about how much, and when, to fish.