KEY ISSUES OF IMPLEMENTATION AND EFFICIENT STRUCTURES FOR COMMUNITY FISHERIES

Susan Hanna

Efficiency and ImplementationFour Examples

Old• Maine soft shell clams

New• Alaska community development quota• Pacific whiting cooperative

Emerging• Port Orford Oregon reef management

Efficiency and Implementation Maine soft shell clams

Control: shared state and coastal towns

Decisionmaking: 72 towns have shellfish committees who co-manage with Maine Department of Marine resources

Types of decisions:– access – extraction– enhancement– enforcement– area rotation

Efficiency and ImplementationMaine soft shell clams

Objectives of system– conservation– cost-effective monitoring

and enforcement– local definitions of equity

Performance– costs and benefits are

devolved– exclusion– tenure assurance– return on investment

Efficiency and Implementation Western Alaska community development quotas

1992

Background: Bering Sea communities were isolated, low income, without access to capital to participate in Bering sea fisheries

The 56 eligible communities that border the Bering Sea formed six CDQ applicant groups.

Each group forms partnership with seafood companies, leasing quota Began with pollock, eventually all sepcies will be phased in. Total CDQ share of TAC Sets aside 10% of pollock TAC, 7.5% of all other groundfish and crab TACs, and halibut set aside.

Allocated among CDQ groups by Governor on the basis of plans

Efficiency and Implementation Western Alaska community development quotas

Management of CDQ

– Most lease their CDQ to industry partners

– Industry partners may pay matching funds for future seafood business ventures

– Industry groups employ community residents

– Partnerships in ownership of vessels and other seafood businesses

Management of CDQ revenues

– education– training– scholarship – seafood investment funds

Efficiency and Implementation Western Alaska community development quotas

Outcomes since 1992

Major source of revenue, employment and stability to 65 remote coastal communities in Bering Sea/ Aleutian Islands

Nearly $125 million in wages, education, and training benefits provided to over 25,000 western AK residents

2003 total revenues of the six CDQ groups was about $88 million combined

Asset value of all 6 CDQ groups is currently around $300 million

Efficiency and ImplementationPacific Whiting Conservation Cooperative

Function: – management of quota share to catcher-

processor sector of large-volume whiting fishery (144k mt)

Context:– race for fish– lost economic value– overcapitalization

Objectives: Four companies operating 10 C-P vessels formed PWCC to:

– end race for fish and increase effieicncy– stabilize harvesting– reduce waste and improve resource

utilization– reduce bycatch – share information on catch and bycatch – conduct and fund research for resource

conservation.

Efficiency and ImplementationPacific Whiting Conservation Cooperative

Types of Decisions:– allocate C-P share of whiting TAC to coop members

– facilitate quota transfers among member companies.

– monitor the catch through full federal observer coverage

– pay for observer coverage.

– report catches to a private centralized monitoring service.

– enforce compliance

Efficiency and ImplementationPacific Whiting Conservation Cooperative

Performance outcomes:

Increased efficiency of harvest– reduced capacity (from 10 to 4

vessels)– increased recovery rates (17.2 to

24%)

Improved conservation – reduced bycatch (2.74 k/mt

to .99k/mt)

Lower transactions costs of management

– small numbers: efficient negotiations

Efficiency and Implementation Port Orford Oregon Reef

Context: – Population 1000, low income,

small-boat homogeneous fleet, limited fishing opportunities, localized reef

Objective: – Area control and protection, community

quota share, maximize value from small catches, collective decisionmaking, protection against large-scale harvesting

Approach: – Formation of Port Orford Ocean

Resources Team (POORT) for community-based mapping, management recommendations and eventually management