Feb 5 2015 Talk about Fish Allocation

[mikep]

Seminar presentation by Dr Brad Gentner
Thursday, Feb. 5, 2015 4:30 PM, social follows
Open to the public, no cost
U of Washington Aquatic & Fishery Sciences
102 Fishery Sciences Building
1122 NE Boat St, Seattle
Title: Letting the perfect be the enemy of the good: the current state of inter-sectoral allocation in US fisheries management
Allocation has become a hot issue for every fishery management council in the country. In mixed use fisheries, those with both a recreational and commercial component, recreational anglers have been seeking a higher percentage of the total quota. Hard total allowable catches and hard rebuilding timelines have increased conflicts between user groups. The National Marine Fisheries Service’s and the Environmental Defense Fund’s desire to put catch shares in every commercial fishery in the US has also exacerbated these conflicts. Because of these institutional shifts and pressures from recreational advocacy groups, the last Magnuson reauthorization included the requirement to examine economic values in making allocations and the NMFS official Catch Share Policy requires the examination of allocation using economic metrics before the institution of a catch share program and an update of the allocation every five years. These policies have prompted economic study after economic study showing that, using the traditional and accepted equimarginal principle, recreational values are much higher than commercial values across the most important recreational fisheries. State managers in the South Atlantic and Gulf States have already decided to manage most inshore species as entirely recreational fisheries because they understand recreational fishing generates more value from the public resources. However, these studies and the state experience with inshore species are being ignored in the management process. Councils complain that the recreational data is not certain “enough” to make these decisions, yet they set quotas using very uncertain data at nearly every meeting. Academics have started publishing articles, funded by catch share supporters, which state recreational fisheries need to be “rationalized” and limited entry must be instituted before allocations can be changed. “Rationalization” is completely antithetical to the creation of value and the generation of economic activity for a private recreational anglers. This seminar will focus on this rusted shut policy process. The councils and NMFS are currently letting the perfect defeat the good that is possible in reallocation.