The Use of Limited Access Privilege Programs in Mixed-Use Fisheries (2021) / Chapter Skim
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8 Addressing the Impacts of LAPPs in Mixed-Use Fisheries
8 Addressing the Impacts of LAPPs in Mixed-Use Fisheries
Pages 151-172
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From page 151... ...
The committee then recommends potential policy changes that could be implemented by Congress, the NMFS, or individual Councils to mitigate negative impacts, while promoting the positive functioning of the LAPPs considered in this study as well as any future LAPPs that may be considered. Finally, recommendations are provided for data collection, research, and outreach that are important to improve the functioning of existing LAPPs as well as contribute to improved designs of new LAPPs.
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From page 152... ...
Mid-Atlantic, South Atlantic, and the Gulf of Mexico where complex coastal economies are often dominated by tourism and have substantial recreational fishing. With respect to the mixed-use components of the fisheries in the study, the committee finds no evidence for direct effects of LAPPs on private recreational anglers or recreational for-hire providers.
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From page 153... ...
Second, it is important for the fishery management community, including managers and scientists, to more openly and explicitly acknowledge and address trade-offs in the objectives of LAPPs. As noted in previous chapters, the Councils often specify a large number of social, economic, and ecological objectives when designing a LAPP, but only as they relate to the commercial sector for which the program is implemented.
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From page 154... ...
Finally, while improved policy design may help to mitigate some of the social impacts of LAPPs and foster less acrimony in the Council process, it is important to acknowledge that LAPPs are likely to remain controversial among a number of stakeholders because they change both the economic and social aspects of fisheries, with differing impacts within a community. This process of transition can be unsettling to many members of fishing communities in ways that extend beyond material impacts, creating spillovers to the nature of work and a way of life for captains, crews, and participants in fisheries-dependent sectors (Pinkerton, 2014, 2015; Ringer et al., 2018; Steiner et al., 2018)
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From page 155... ...
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR EXISTING AND FUTURE LAPPs Part A: Impacts to Recreational Stakeholders As noted in Chapter 6 there is weak evidence for direct spillovers, either positive or negative, to recreational stakeholders as a result of the establishment of a commercial LAPP in a mixed-use fishery. While several theoretical pathways have been identified by which such spillovers might exist, the weight of evidence and structure of causal links between recreational and commercial fishing provide little evidence for direct impacts.
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From page 156... ...
Furthermore, it is an open question for policy makers as to whether this form of quasi-recreational fishing within a commercial LAPP should be encouraged or not. Nevertheless, the committee provides the following recommendations to enhance the Councils' capacity to monitor and control cross-sector leakage in existing LAPPs in mixed-use fisheries: Recommendation A-1: The Councils should review the policies regarding entry into the for-hire sector for potential loopholes that would allow expanded capacity in the for hire sector and revise the policies accordingly.
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From page 157... ...
At the same time, recreational anglers, accustomed to pre-LAPP commercial seasons under "derby" conditions that are roughly similar to their own recreational seasons, may react unfavorably to the much longer commercial seasons that follow the LAPP -- calling for increases in allocation and other reforms in the hope of extending fishing opportunities for recreational anglers. This has been especially prominent in the Gulf of Mexico red snapper fishery, which saw its recreational seasons fall to weeks or days, despite a consistent allocation of harvest, even as commercial fishers under the LAPP extended their season over months (see Figure 6.2)
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From page 158... ...
This approach could allow for customization of management to reflect the local context and allow for policy experimentation. Importantly, AMOs would have the ability to transfer their annual allocation to other AMOs or even to commercial fishers as well as purchase or lease quota from the commercial sector.
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From page 159... ...
The charge of this committee is not directly concerned with the management of the recreational component of LAPPs in mixeduse fisheries. Nevertheless, tensions over allocations between the recreational and commercial sectors in a fishery with a LAPP are demonstrably heightened by policies in the recreational sector that undermine angler welfare and unnecessarily constrain fishing opportunities, while also failing to adequately contain recreational fishing mortality (Abbott et al., 2018)
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From page 160... ...
Therefore, while the following recommendations do not directly pertain to the mixed-use dimension that forms the unique basis of this study, they are nonetheless pertinent to current and future LAPPs in mixed-use fisheries. As reviewed in Chapter 5, barriers to entry are the most commonly discussed negative social impacts of many LAPPs, and this appears to apply to LAPPs in mixed-use fisheries as much as to others.
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From page 161... ...
It is important that new LAPPs in mixed-use fisheries address perceived inequities in the initial allocation of quota shares, which lead to perceptions of unfairness from all sectors in the fishery. Grandfathered allocations preserve and retain traditional and historical participation but can create windfall gains for initial claimants, which may or may not be justifiable.
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From page 162... ...
. Recommendation B-1: The Councils and the NMFS, in planning new LAPPs in mixed use fisheries, should develop a broad range of options for the initial allocation of quota, including but going beyond the practice of limiting eligibility to existing vessel owners or permit holders with historic records (especially if overcapitalization is not a goal and shares are to be given for free)
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From page 163... ...
Part C: Impacts to Fishing Communities Congress specified that LAPPs should take into consideration the needs of fishing communities and small-scale fishing enterprises. This issue of scale of operation received no attention in the LAPP reviews and management documents, possibly because the smaller-scale operations in these regions are thought to be mainly participating in inshore, state water fisheries; however, fishing communities, including some measures of their ties to recreational fishing, are now systematically characterized by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
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From page 164... ...
) that allow for assignment of quota shares to fishing communities, as well as regional fishery associations, should be included as among alternatives being considered by the Councils.
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From page 165... ...
, the committee found the need for improvements that would help in future reviews of existing LAPPs but also in designing future LAPPs. In most cases the program reviews found little empirical evidence that would enable evaluating social and community aspects of the programs, reflecting the underdevelopment of data collection for social impact analysis, a problem already discussed in this report.
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From page 166... ...
Given the rising importance of mixed-use fisheries, this data gap is pertinent to the for-hire recreational fishing crew as well. Recommendation D-6: The NMFS and the Councils should develop ways to expand cap tain and crew data collection such that it can comprehensively track people participating in federal fisheries.
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From page 167... ...
in cooperation with recreational fishing stakeholder groups would be critical at an early stage in these research efforts to help design more effective survey instruments and to ensure that the research is viewed as valid and of value to recreational stakeholders. Moreover, such an effort can be a step toward a more integrated approach to understanding and managing mixed-use fisheries insofar as it may allow for comparison among the recreational, for-hire, and commercial sectors, at least at the level of qualitative data on social, economic, and community dimensions.
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From page 168... ...
Similarly, findings of quantitative studies, including difficult-to-explain results, can inform future qualitative data collection to help explain why certain outcomes materialize. Recommendation E-1: The NMFS and the Councils should encourage interdisciplinarity and better integrate qualitative and quantitative data to generate hypotheses and discern and test policy impacts.
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From page 169... ...
The federal fisheries management system is realized in large part through collaborations among regional science centers, regional and national offices, and the regional fishery management councils, with the oversight of the Secretary of Commerce. It has evolved since its inception in the late 1970s toward a far more balanced system that recognizes the importance of human behavior and institutions in fisheries.
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From page 170... ...
The committee therefore recommends that the NMFS and the Councils more thoroughly investigate institutional innovations such as co-managed "angler management organizations," which provide a platform for representing the interests of recreational anglers in facilitating negotiated transfers of harvest quota between recreational and commercial sectors, while devolving management in a manner that facilitates anglers' investment in their own governance and ensuring accountable harvest within the allocation. Finding ways to devolve management to better customize it to regional and user-group features, facilitate reallocation when situations measurably change, and, above all, improve accountability are worthwhile goals for all participants in a mixed-use fishery.
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From page 171... ...
At the same time, the committee aimed to seek and properly interpret quantitative data that may or may not support those views. This was a genuinely interdisciplinary endeavor, and the committee urges the NMFS and the Councils to take seriously the recommendation to find ways to better link, and where possible integrate, social and economic research methods.
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