Individual Fishing Quotas: IFQs

In the coming months North Carolina fishermen will undoubtedly be forced to overcome an array of dubious challenges. In that time much thought will be given to alternative management techniques. As we've seen with the near-shore longlining buyout plan, moving forward with new management techniques can be treacherous.

One technique that has received a lot of attention lately is the Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) system, also know as an Individual Transferable Quota (ITQ) system. In December 2000 Congress extended a four-year-old moratorium, which bans fisheries managers from enacting IFQ systems pending further analysis for an additional two years. The extension allows for more studies to determine the criteria that would ensure IFQs would be fair to all parties involved.
What happens in an IFQ?

Basically, an IFQ system would allow only a limited number of fishing operations to participate in an affected fishery. Each participating fishing operation has an individual quota that could be caught without seasonal restrictions. That individual quota could also be leased or sold to other participants in the fishery.

IFQs are rife with potential benefit and harm. The positive implications are enticing: fishermen would no longer have to brave dangerous weather conditions to fish in-season, fuel expenditures could be lower and stocks could be more closely regulated.

The potential harm, however, is a menacing prospect: larger operations could buy out smaller family run operations, devastating the coastal economy; discard rates could be much higher as operations seek to maximize the value of their predetermined allowable catch; and fish stocks could be negatively impacted by a more selective, more efficient fishing fleet.

When considering possible IFQs we must take into account how the management technique has impacted fisheries in the past. In Iceland, where an IFQ-like program was instated in 1984, fishing villages were economically devastated, discard rates increased, groundfish stocks declined, fuel consumer prices soared.

In September, Icelandic journalist Vladimar Johannesson told a Massachusetts IFQ forum, "In America, if you are not aware, it will happen to you before you know it. I don't hate the quota owners. Who's the guilty person? It's the voters."