New Fishery Management Program on West Coast Gives Fishermen Greater Flexibility and Gives Overfished Species a Break

Update news from NOAA Fisheries:
Ralph Brown runs a 75-foot trawler, Little Joe, out of Brookings, Oregon. He fishes for pink shrimp, Dungeness crab, and groundfish, moving between the Oregon and Alaskan coastlines at different times of year. In 2011, the West Coast groundish fishery, which typically accounts for more than half of Brown’s gross, converted to a catch shares system of management. As a result, for both Ralph Brown’s business and for the groundfish he depends on, things are looking up.

Flexibility Is Up

Before the change, fishing for groundfish on the West Coast took place in two-month bouts. During each mini-season, fishermen would race to catch their limit before time ran out. This led to unsafe conditions on the water and to periodic gluts as boats all brought their catch to market at once.

Today, each fisherman or company is allocated a percentage of the year’s total allowable catch for a species. That share of the catch—the catch share—translates into the fisherman’s individual quota for the year, and they can fish it whenever they like.

“The main thing is, it allows us to plan better,” Ralph Brown said. “We’re spreading out the supply with the other boats, so the processor gets an even flow, while we can go out shrimping or crabbing in between. Plus we do bigger trips, fewer of them, and more pounds.”

Brent Paine, executive director of the United Catcher Boats Association, said his members benefit from the flexibility. “If the fishing’s really bad and we’re burning up a lot of fuel,” he said, “we can hold off for a while until the fishing’s better. In the old system, you would fish until your quota was over, no matter what.”

The West Coast Groundfish Fishery includes Pacific whiting, Pacific cod, sablefish, and many species of flatfish and rockfish. In 2011, the first year of the catch share program, revenues came in at $54 million, up from a previous-five-year annual average of $38 million.

Bycatch Is Down

In the old system, fishermen were racing against the clock, so they didn’t have the time to target fish carefully. As a result, they took on a lot of bycatch, which are fish that are caught unintentionally. To avoid fines at the dock, fishermen often discarded the bycatch, already dead, at sea.

Bycatch is a particularly tricky problem for groundfish trawlers because so many different species mingle on the bottom. There are more than 90 species in this fishery, and a fisherman never really knows what’s in his net until it comes out of the water.

In the new system, fishermen are given an individual quota for all species. That includes both the ones they’re targeting and the ones, because of low population numbers, that they need to avoid. But for those species, they get a very low quota—in some cases, so low that a single unlucky tow can put them over.

Today, they cannot toss those fish overboard. Instead, the fisherman must lease unused quota from someone else to cover the difference, or pay it back out of the next year’s allotment. Until they do, they’re locked out of the fishery. This gives fishermen a strong incentive to avoid certain species of fish. It also insures that, even when an individual fisherman exceeds his target—which is bound to happen sometimes in a complex groundfish fishery—the total catch for the fleet stays within the limit.

This system is effective because every boat now has an observer on board. The observer identifies and weighs everything that comes up in the net, and makes sure that every pound is accounted for.

According to Paine, all members of the United Catcher Boats Association get together to strategize before the season starts. “If one area is really hot for canary rockfish,” Paine says, naming a rare species with a very low catch limit, “we’ll draw lines around that hotspot and agree not to fish there. So we have closure zones that are generated by the boat captains themselves.”

Also, fishermen have an incentive to innovate. If they manage to avoid species with very low catch limits, they can lease their unused quota pounds to someone else. “People have been experimenting with different net styles in order to become more selective in their catch, because we know that individually we can benefit” Ralph Brown says.

Since the catch share system was put in place in 2011, the whiting fleet has reduced bycatch of canary rockfish by 79 percent. Overall discards for the entire groundfish fishery in 2011 were a very low 4.8 percent. Because of this, overfished populations are getting a chance to rebuild.

Looking Forward

Catch shares provides a combination of flexibility and accountability that leads to a more efficient and sustainable fishery. The West Coast Groundfish Trawl Catch Share Program is proving to be a model system of management. The program was created through a collaboration of the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, the Pacific Fishery Management Council, the West Coast states, and NOAA Fisheries.

These partners will continue to fine-tune the program. But already, things are looking up. “From my perspective, it’s been pretty successful,” Ralph Brown said. “It’s way better than what we had before.”

Education! - Make £43m spent on fish in schools sustainable

In the last newsletter we asked you to help us call for all fish served in schools to have mandatory sustainability standards, because government had already implemented standards for MPs, prisoners and the armed forces. Thank you! Your emails meant that we got a meeting with Henry Dimbleby, of restaurant chain Leon, who has been commissioned by the Department of Education to carry out a school food review.

Henry requested a formal submission which we have done in collaboration with the Environmental Justice Foundation, Greenpeace, Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s Fish Fight and the Marine Conservation Society. In that submission we uncover shocking inaccuracies in the Department of Education’s replies to those who took the action. The Department stated, incorrectly, that sustainable fish was already being served in many schools. See more here.

From our meeting with Mr Dimbleby it was quite clear that we would need to keep on campaigning, so please take the action to call for sustainable fish to be served in schools if you have not already done so.

Story courtesy of Sustainable Fish City.

Movie Silent Killer about the loss and story of the trawler Bugaled Breizh

Bugaled Breizh is Breton for Children of Brittany

The one and a half hour film documenting the search for the truth behind the sinking of the boat showing to a packed room in The Centre, Newlyn...

Patch Harvey (left), now cox of the Penlee lifeboat with Bugaled Breizh skipper and owner who was ashore at the time was called out that day to help in the unsuccessful search for survivors...

after the film, Michelle Douce managed to catch up with a few of his old Newlyn fishing friends some of whom he had not seen for over twenty years!


Today, Breton team with the model boats will join in the St Piran's Day celebrations and parade in the centre of Truro,

St Piran's Day in Cornwall

Great Cornishman Humphry Davy, saver of thousands of miner's lives waves the flag for Cornish men and women all over the world!

Nimber S202 takes in a haul of just over 200 tonnes

Time-lapse movie showing the Swedish pelagic trawler Nimber S202 take a haul of around 200 tonnes of fish. 

The cod end is hauled to the transom stern and a lift pump attached to the cod end. The fish is then pumped aboard via the huge rubber hose in to chilled sea water holding tanks.

Real Time Closures in Scottish waters

Real Time Closures

Since 2007, Scotland has operated a system of “real-time” closures of sea areas where there are concentrations of cod. This system of closures is designed to help the continuing recovery of cod stocks in the waters around Scotland. 

The Real Time Closure scheme is one of the ‘conservation credit’ measures that Scotland has taken under the EU’s Cod Recovery Plan to allow Scottish vessels more time at sea in return for adopting conservation-minded fishing practices.

2010 Scheme Arrangements from July 1st onwards

The overall size of each closed area shall increase from 7.5nm x 7.5nm to a new maximum size of 15nm x 15nm Inside 12 miles Marine Scotland will, where the trigger level has been achieved, consider in consultation with the CCSG the nature and extent of the need for any closure in relation to current and anticipated fishing activity. The RTC scheme continues to apply to all waters in the Scottish Zone and beyond where Scottish vessels are operating outwith the 12 mile limit.

We are in addition investigating (June 2010) the possibility of creating a very small group of industry contacts to confirm the appropriateness of these new larger areas prior to implementation whilst maintaining the real time element. Marine Scotland's view shall be final in all circumstances.

Where any dispute cannot be resolved the area shall default to a square with sides of equal length. There will be potential for further amendment after discussions between industry representatives and Marine Scotland. The shape and size of any closed area shall in the first instance be agreed between the Marine Scotland boarding officer and the Master of the fishing vessel.

The key features of real time closures scheme are as follows:

• A minimum of 40 cod per hour's fishing effort will indicate a high abundance
• Any closed area will be definted by a maximum of 6 points - there will be a maximum level of 11 closures (plus 3 in the event of a positive sample) set at any one time
• There will be no closed areas within the 12 mile zone, unless exceptional circumstances exists
• This is referred to as Logged Per Unit Effort (LPUE). This will be in relation to time spend fishing as identified by VMS information. In the absense of enough samples, they will be based on the highest ranked areas in relation to Cost recorded on log sheets. Each closure will be as a result of 1 positive sample (over 40 Cod per hour)
• Closures will last for a fixed period of 21 days, after which the area will automatically re-open
• There will be no set minimum closures in North Sea Zones 1 and 2. Closed areas shall be focussed on the highest ranking LPEU data, delivering the maximum conservation benefit.
• Any closures in Zone 2, inside our Fishery Limits of the North Sea, shall remain at the current size of 7.5 x 7.5
• The West Coast of Scotland shall be treated independently and have a minimum of 1 closure in place at all times
• Other UK administrations and other member states will be advised of closures and vessels encouraged to observer them
• Industry will be encouraged to notify the existance (for information purposes) where they encountered high numbers of undersized cod. Tel: +44 (0)131 271 9700, Fax: +44 (0)131 244 6471 and Email:UKFCC@scotland.gsi.gov.uk
• Information on sample results and closed areas will be published on the Marine Scotland website
• Sampling will be undertaken by Marine Scotland and independent observers
• Marine Scotland Science observers shall seek the permission of the vessel master before any notifications are made

Changes to notification arrangements - from June 2011

As agreed at CCSG on 13 June 2011, Marine Scotland will extend the notification period before an RTC for Cod comes into force. The closure will come into affect the midnight after the day the sample was taken or the LPUE was provided, this will give an additional 24 hours notice to industry and should improve communication of closures. Closures will continue to be for 21 days.

This will not apply to Juvenile Real Time Closures.

 Archive of Management Letters on Real Time Closures

• Marine Directorate's letter of 30 August 2007
• Marine Directorate's letter of 24th December 2007
• Cod Spawning Map (issued with letter of 24th December 2007)
• Marine Directorate's letter of 16 May 2008
• Marine Directorate's letter of 08 July 2008
• Marine Directorate's letter of 29 October 2008
• Marine Directorate's letter of 05 January 2009

Additionally, you may find the following links to the fisheries departments of Faroe Islands, Norwayand France useful in keeping up to date with closed areas in their waters.

• Directorate of Fisheries, Norway
• Faroe Islands Fisheries Inspection
• Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, France

Fish shops, chip shops, restaurants and hotels - Ethical purchasing?

This is a question posed by skipper John Buchan aboard the white fish trawler, Ocean Venture: 

A few questions to all fish shops, chip shops, restaurants and hotels... 

Do you, to the best of your knowledge use Scottish caught fish? 

Would you use Scottish fish? 

Does your supplier inform you he may often use CHEAP foreign imports? 

The import of cod and haddock are gripping the Scottish fleet at the moment with the prices for such species at a low. Support your local fishermen and demand fresh fish!


An example of just one of many local companies producing haddock and smoked haddock fillets - from Scotland all the way down to the tip of Cornwall - can you source more of your supplies from them?.