All animals that interact with fishing gear are not necessarily captured, and all animals that are captured are not necessarily retained. Fishing practices and gear configuration, management regulations, and markets dictate which animals ultimately are retained or discarded. The impact of a fishery and the efficacy of management regulations can...
Concern over the incidental catch of non-targeted species in commercial and
recreational fisheries has greatly increased. Public attention, negative publicity,
controversies between differing fisheries and gear groups and the reauthorization of the
Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act have led to an increased
awareness of the issue. The Pacific halibut...
The US Magnuson-Stevens Act authorizes the use of onboard observers to
monitor commercial fisheries catch and bycatch (PFMC 2003). A question
of concern in implementing an observer program is that of the appropriate
level of observer coverage. Current practice varies by fishery; for example,
the California-Oregon drift gillnet fishery for...
The red king crab (Paralithodes camtschaticus) is an alien invasive species in the Barents Sea representing a value as well as a potential pest. A bio-economic model is applied analysing the costs that traditional fisheries incur as a result of the king crab invasion, as well as the income from...
The Pacific coast groundfish fishery is a diverse, important and lucrative commercial and recreational fishery. Part of this fishery’s monitoring process includes regular fishery-independent surveys for stock assessment. Although these fishery-independent surveys are cost-effective, they are susceptible to scientific uncertainty, and they do not currently sample in nearshore (water depth...
The case for assigning private property rights in fisheries has been
thoroughly studied but has lead to a new debate over whether rights should
be allocated to groups or individuals. The New England groundfish fishery
provides a rich context in which to study this question. Beginning in 2004,
several dozen...
An industry group has proposed a novel mechanism for management of the multispecies groundfish fishery off the northeastern United States. Under this mechanism, individual harvesters would be allocated a budget of points, to be expended landing fish. A regulatory body will set different prices, denominated in points, for landing each...
Outputs and inputs during 1994-2006 in the USA Northeast Multispecies (groundfish) fishery—including days fished for a group of 47 otter trawl vessels fishing out of New Bedford, Massachusetts, USA—were analyzed to test the hypothesis that restricting the annual days-at-sea (DAS) of individual fishing vessels increased Technical Efficiency (TE). The results...
The lack of selectivity in many fisheries may lead to discards and bycatch. Discards of under-sized or non-commercial species/individuals represent damage to the eco-system, an additional source of overfishing and a waste of resources. Bycatch may increase fishing pressure on species targeted by other fishermen. The purpose of the paper...
This paper examines the effects of a share-based management program in the Central Gulf of Alaska rockfish fishery. The program provides exclusive allocations to cooperatives of nine species, including one species for which retention is prohibited. Under the program, allocations of all species are required to fish and all catch,...
Bycatch is a nearly universal problem for fisheries, and it is becoming
increasingly common to place strict limits on allowable bycatch, either on
individuals or as a cap on an industry sector s bycatch. Individual bycatch
quotas strengthen individual incentives to avoid bycatch and may reduce
the likelihood that the...
The bycatch problem has remained troubling and persistent, even in
fisheries that have rationalized their target fisheries. The Alaskan Pollock
fishery is an example of a fishery struggling to contain the bycatch of
salmon in spite of a transformation of incentives associated with a
harvester coop system in the target...
The demersal fishery of southern Chile is a complex system including multiple species, fishing fleets and markets. Fishing activity is conducted under a rights-based system for southern hake (Merluccius australis) and hoki (Macroronus magellanicus), where a TAC is allocated in an even manner among fleets and operators. New management approaches...
Five species of marine turtles are found within the territorial waters of Vietnam, and all populations are declining. As part of a broader strategy and Action Plan, the Government of Vietnam and WWF Vietnam have launched a two-year project to: 1) document relative gear impacts, and geographic hotspots , for...
In 2000, the US Congress responded to the industry-wide constriction of the West Coast groundfish industry by allocating $5 million in disaster relief for Oregon, Washington, and California. Each state, with minimal federal oversight, designed and executed its own disaster response program to help impacted members of the fishing industry...
The Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery harvests a diverse and large grouping of fishes, but it did not become heavily fished until around WWII. This makes the groundfish fishery a comparatively young fishery. Despite its youth, it is one of the largest and most lucrative fisheries in Oregon—with a current harvest...
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I. Introduction
The Pacific Coast GroundfishFishery harvests a diverse
In ecosystem-based fishery management, the ecosystem comprises the
natural sub-system and also human components, including user groups,
institutions and the processes of management. Regional Fishery
Management Organizations (RFMOs), particularly those designed to
manage tunas, were not established with an ecosystem view of the pelagic
environment. However, tuna RFMOs have evolved...
Bycatch is repeatedly noted as a primary problem of fisheries management
and as the foremost negative impact of commercial fishing. In the Bering
Sea pollock fishery, salmon bycatch reduction measures have included gear
modifications but have principally consisted of area closures. Bycatch
levels of chum and Chinook salmon have risen...
Since 1999, the scallop fisheries have been granted access to closed areas on Georges Bank, and the
access programs have been managed through individual vessel quotas for scallops, and a common-pool
total allowable catch (TAC) for yellowtail flounder bycatch. The scallop resource is neither overfished
and nor is overfishing occurring,...
There is growing recognition worldwide that the impacts of fishing on non-targeted components of marine ecosystems should be included in the assessment of fisheries sustainability. This leads to the inclusion of new constraints in evaluations of the long-term bio-economic performance of fisheries. In this paper, we analyze the implications of...