Macinko and Whitmore: Fisheries Sectors

I met Seth Macinko and learned a little about the complexities of the sector system proposed for New England's fisheries at a workshop organized by Ecotrust on "Market Design for Limited Access Privileges Programs in U.S. Fisheries."

Macinko and William Whitmore are both at University of Rhode Island and their report, commissioned by the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries is called, "A New England Dilemma: Thinking Sectors Through" (pdf).

Here is the key distinction for the operation of the proposed sector system:

An interesting nuance is involved in the characterization of sectors. … Because allocations are not technically granted to individuals, sectors are not legally considered Limited Access Privilege Programs (LAPPs) under the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which defines LAPPs as catch shares assigned to individuals. With sectors, as opposed to LAPPs, an individual has a verified catch history, not a catch share. While catch shares are granted to the individual and a usable upon issuance, sector allocations are based on verified individual catch histories of sector members. The critical feature here is that the actual allocation is to the sector, not to any individuals.

From the executive summary:

Sectors hold great promise to improve the conservation of key stocks because they are predicated upon total allowable catch limits (TACs). However, the conservation benefits of sectors are not guaranteed; instead, they rest on the ability to set, monitor, and enforce sustainable TACs. …

The current approach to sectors appears to be driven by an extreme faith in privatization, deregulation, and devolution of authority. Mere faith that private ownership promotes stewardship will not contribute towards solving the monitoring and enforcement challenges on which conservation truly depends, and could spell disaster for sectors.  

For background on how these types of catch share programs have performed in Canada, see the Ecotrust Canada report, "A Cautionary Tale."