Shems Jud, the Environmental Defense Fund’s policy coordinator, informed that the Pacific Coast ground fisheries are in serious need of management reform. He added that the ground fisheries are not producing the economic benefits it should be producing in coastal communities. According to the Environmental Defense Fund adopting such a quota system would revitalize the fishing industry along the West Coast. It says such catch share programmes have worked successfully around the world.
Ralph Brown of Brookings, said that this IFQ programme is a win for fishermen, processors and the communities. He further said fishermen are struggling because there is no flexibility and no choice in the current management programme. As per the record the revenues from the groundfish fell from $47.3 million to $22.2 million from 1997 to 2007. Currently, the Pacific Fishery Management Council, which governs West Coast fishing, lists seven species of rockfish as overfished.
Johanna Thomas, director of fisheries projects for the Pacific Ocean programme of the Environmental Defense Fund, told that with the IFQ, each individual fisherman is given a percentage of fishery based on their catch history over a certain number of years. It is said that the whole system was such, no one really has a feeling of responsibility for the health of these stocks and don’t have flexibility to really change the fishing behaviour. The IFQ will allow the fishermen to tailor their fishing with match to the quota as it gives personal benefits and responsibility to the catches of each individual.
