Food & Water Watch Criticizes Gulf Council Approval of Unfair Fish Management Plan

Contact:
Ben Bowman or Erica Schuetz, Food & Water Watch, (202) 683-2500

Food & Water Watch Criticizes Gulf Council Approval of Unfair Fish Management Plan

Washington, DC— Despite opposition, the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, a regional body that helps create regulations for U.S. fish, voted 13-4 last week to approve a new management plan for Gulf tilefish and grouper. National consumer advocacy organization Food & Water Watch and others opposed the Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) plan based on content and the unfair process used to push it through.

“This plan is not about conservation,” stated Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch. “It is almost entirely about shifting public resources to private control. This is supported by our federal agencies because if fisheries are privatized, the agencies have a reduced management burden. While Gulf fisheries do need a new approach to management, this IFQ program is not the answer.”

IFQ programs are designed to reduce the number of people catching fish in one area, by allocating the right to fish like shares of stock (quota). The government establishes how much fish can be caught each year and then divvies up that amount. In order to get a piece of this pie, someone needs to have caught a certain amount of fish during specific years (known as catch history). While this may seem a fair system, in practice, the IFQ program provides some people free exclusive access to fish, while others are squeezed out or are forced to pay exorbitant prices to buy or lease quota to continue fishing.

One new issue with the IFQ plan is that much of the annual tilefish and grouper quota will go to fishermen that use longlines – because they often catch more fish than those that use other gear types. A recent study indicated that longlines are catching high numbers of sea turtles accidentally, so also last week, the Council voted to change how longlines are used in the Gulf. However, the IFQ plan still bases quota share on longliners’ catch history.

“It made little sense to finalize an IFQ plan based on catch history for a gear that may no longer be permitted in these fisheries,” noted Hauter.

Ben Bowman, a policy analyst for Food & Water Watch, added, “The approval process for the plan was very problematic too – about 70% of permit holders that this plan will affect were excluded from voting for or against it. Only the people who might benefit from it were allowed to vote.”

In comments to the Council, Food & Water Watch also noted that the new plan is not consistent with standards set in the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Management Act, the primary federal law on U.S fish.

Bowman added, “Ultimately, it is the responsibility of the Council to design an ecologically sustainable fishery, and a management program that shares the fish, a public property resource, in a way that provides for management adaptation, is fair for the entire community – including past, present and future fishermen – and meets legal standards.”

Alternatives might include fixed-duration “contracts” for use of the fishery resources, allocated through an auction mechanism. Food & Water Watch hopes to work with the Gulf Council and other fishery managers to help craft better programs.