One LAPP in the Southeast was ready to go in a matter of four or five months, with 80 percent approval from participants, because the sole criterion was landings history as proven by vessel logbooks. NEFMC members said their biggest concern is the prospect of spending valuable time and resources on the referendum process, only to find that potential participants are not interested. Morris said that it’s up to NEFMC to determine the level of participation on which they will base their decision to consider a petition for a LAPP. Sally McGee, NEFMC scientiest, said the management tool is timely for the monkfish industry, which has shown interest in quotas. The term LAPP is used in the reauthorized Magnuson Stevens Act (MSA) of 2006, which specifies some mandatory conditions and provisions for designing LAPP programs. The MSA requires that, to be eligible to participate in a LAPP, a fishing community must meet criteria developed by NEFMC, and be approved by the Secretary of Commerce. The LAPP must consist of residents who conduct commercial or recreational fishing, processing, or fishery-dependent support businesses. And the group must develop a sustainability plan that demonstrates how the LAPP will address social and economic development needs of coastal communities. The MSA’s participation criteria are based on traditional fishing or processing practices; the cultural and social framework relevant to the fishery; economic barriers to access the fishery; the existence and severity of projected economic and social impacts associated with implementation of limited access privilege programs on harvesters, captains, crew, processors, and other businesses dependent on the fishery; the expected effectiveness, operational transparency, and equitability of the community sustainability plan; and the potential for improving economic conditions. The term limited access privilege program evolved from the concept of individual transferable quotas and individual fishing quotas, but expands the emphasis beyond “individual” control. As an umbrella term, it includes access privileges assigned to individuals – such as individual transferable quotas (ITQ), IFQs, or individual gear quotas – as well as to groups or communities, such as area-based quotas. The critical pieces of a LAPP involve the specifications and characteristics of the harvest privileges, and the method of determining harvest allocations. Fishery management councils are mandated to use the MSA’s national standards and the management objectives of the particular fishery management plan for selecting and designing a LAPP. Generally, councils design the programs while NMFS implements and monitors them. There are many types of LAPPs in use around the world. In New England, the Georges Bank Cod Hook Sector, established in 2004 with 58 vessels using longline, jigging or handlining, has been allocated a portion of the total Georges Bank total allowable catch for cod. To qualify for membership in the sector, each member must possess a limited access permit with days-at-sea and must qualify with landings of Georges Bank cod. Members sign a legally binding contract that commits their vessel and permit to the sector agreement for the fishing year. In the Mid-Atlantic, there has been an ITQ system since 1990 for larger vessels with hydraulic clam dredges harvesting surf clams and ocean quahogs. The Atlantic offshore fishery has had a ITQ system for wreckfish in place since 1992, for a small number of vessels. Alaska has an IFQ program and a community quota program for halibut and sablefish, while the Pacific has a stacking program for groundfish fixed gear limited entry permits that are endorsed for sablefish. In 2007, a Gulf of Mexico group started an IFQ program for red snapper fished with bottom longlines, handlines, and bottom trawls. Shares are based on previous landings history. Questions arose about how voter eligibity would be determined. The council can establish whether the bar is set at captains or from anyone who has worked on a boat. The percentage of a fishermen’s income would need to be significant, although significant has yet to be determined. Council member David Goethel pointed out that in New England many crewmen who earned significant income during the eligibility period have since left fishing due to regulatons forced cut backs. Who can vote will have a major impact on the outcome of any referendum. LAPP in the scallop fishery has seen 95 percent of that fishery go to large boat and corporate ownership. |
