In response to Executive Order 13985 and the NOAA Fisheries “Draft Equity and Environmental Justice (EEJ) Strategy,” in 2021, the Catch Shares Working Group was asked to examine the role of EEJ in catch share programs. The group found that 1.) catch shares as capacity reduction programs, often exclude current or future participants, and 2.) allocating semi-permanent privileges to individuals reduces flexibility to respond to new priorities. Regions are experimenting with extracting inactive quota to establish quota banks, but the quantities are extremely small. The West Coast Trawl Catch Share Program (WCTCSP) is an exception because the program designers had the prudence to create a quota set-aside program, specifically to provide flexibility to respond to future conditions.
The WCTCSP Adaptive Management Program (AMP) held back 10% out of the initial distribution of quota shares, but was never finalized because of the complexity of implementing the catch share program and because of the controversial allocation decisions. To-date, the AMP quota has been passed through pro rata to existing quota share accounts.
The context of the recent enhanced focus on EEJ issues coupled with the foresight of the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) provides a unique opportunity to explore how distribution of quota can be used to achieve EEJ objectives, especially increasing the access to fishery-related opportunities for underserved communities. Nayani and Warlick (2018) developed policy options for allocating AMP quota, established a decision framework, and scored the options against the five objectives proposed by PFMC staff along four criteria.
This project will start with the Nayani and Warlick (2018) decision framework to explore how the original of the AMP objectives intersect with the current EEJ objectives and whether they are still relevant, whether the policy options are still viable, and if there are new policy options and/or objectives that should be considered. The focus of the analysis will be NOAA Fisheries EEJ Strategy Objective 4- Equitably Distribute Benefits. Identification of the stakeholders will be an essential component of the analysis, especially since the EEJ initiative instructs the agency to consider stakeholders and communities that may not have been previously considered in past fisheries management.