1. Collaborative Monitoring and Data Sharing to Support the Whiting Fishery Bycatch Risk Pool
Brock B. Bernstein, National Fisheries Conservation Center
Dave Fraser, Whiting Fishery Mothership Sector
SETAC North America 33rd Annual Meeting, 2012
Long Beach, CA

2. Pacific Fishing, August 2012

3. The Setting Whiting (hake) fishery off northwest US coast
Mothership and shoreside sectors
Fishery converted to catch-share program in 2010
Individual whiting catch quotas
Individual bycatch quotas for 4 rockfish and salmon
Bycatch caps exceedingly tight, less than 1 fish in some cases
Fishermen can be shut down for season after 1 bad tow
One or two fishermen could shut down entire fleet
Risk high and uncertain – “hit by lightning”

4. Bycatch Rates All rates in kg / ton Target Rates for Full Quota Canary
Dark Blotched
Widow
POP
Base rate
0.06
0.11
1.15
0.14
125% base rate
0.08
1.44
0.17
One Canary rockfish can weigh as much as 7 kg: “I have one pound of canary bycatch quota and that’s not even the head of a fish that can weigh 15 pounds. And I’m not alone, there are a whole bunch of us who have only one or two pounds.”
Precise, real time data on catch
and bycatch clearly critical

5. The Opportunity Amendment 21 allowed for coops
Created incentives and regulatory framework to
Manage whiting catch and bycatch quotas
Balance individual accountability with shared risk
Allowed fishermen choice about whether to join coop
“It’s better to be in a game where
risks are being actively managed
than out on your own”

6. The Challenge Balance individual accountability with shared risk
Change traditional mindset and behavior
Individualism vs. collaboration
Develop and apply effective sanctions
Gather and use data
Both historical and in real time
Create incentives and mechanisms based on data
Transfer knowledge as well as data

7. New Mindset
We are all in this together - One bad tow can shut entire fleet down
Currency is bycatch, not whiting
Retain ownership of
whiting quota - but
Pool bycatch quotas
Knowledge should be
shared, not hoarded
Data is king

8. Stricter Rules All developed by coop, not regulators
Report catch / bycatch data in real time
Require new fishing practices
Nine closed “hot spot” areas
SeaState can close additional areas instantaneously
Real-time relocation triggers for individuals
Sanctions
Fines
Legal actions to collect damages
Restraining orders / prohibitions against fishing
Other actions coop board deems appropriate

9. Explicit Decision Rules

10. Sharing Knowledge
Disaster tows with high rockfish or salmon bycatch

11. Sharing Knowledge
Rockfish schools and aggregations, Yaquina Bay

12. Collaborative Learning
Collecting and sharing decades of individual experience
Avoid dusk and dawn when whiting are higher in water column and in areas where mix with rockfish
Speak up if you see someone headed for trouble
Avoid long tows; time in water = bycatch, so haul back and deliver (even if more expensive)
Shortwire with doors on surface if not fishing
If in iffy situation, RUN!
Watch out for big outgoing tides that push rockfish over edge
Use the available data, plots, maps

13. Comparison to Shoreside Fleet
Individual ownership of both whiting and bycatch quotas
Theoretically can trade bycatch quota to those who need it
But reluctant to trade excess in case hit by lightning
Some fishermen thus shut down even though bycatch quota available
Results in less economically efficient use of bycatch
Less overall whiting catch and fisherman income

14. Questions?