From the government:
The House Natural Resources Committee, Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, Oceans and Wildlife, led by Del. Madeleine Z. Bordallo (D-GU), will hold an oversight hearing on implementation of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 2006, which President Bush signed into law on January 12, 2007.
Subject: House Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, Oceans and Wildlife
Oversight Hearing on implementation of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 2006
When: Tuesday, October 27, 2009, at 10:00 a.m.
Where: Room 1334 Longworth House Office Building...
The hearing will be webcast live on the Committee's Web site at: http://resourcescommittee.house.gov.
One of the witnesses is Mr. Duane Harris, Chairman, South Atlantic Fishery Management Council. He'll be talking mostly about the process to close red snapper fishing in the south Atlantic. Here is the issue as described in the Fall 2009 South Atlantic Fishery Management Council Newsletter:
Red snapper may arguably be one of the most heavily discussed species ever managed by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council - and for good reason. In order to meet mandates in the reauthorized Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA) to end overfishing and rebuild red snapper stocks, large area closures may be necessary for the entire snapper grouper fishery. The proposed closures would have the most widespread social and economic impacts of any decision in recent Council history.
The red snapper stock in the South Atlantic is undergoing overfishing and has been overfished for the past several decades, according to a stock assessment completed in 2008 through the Southeast Data, Assessment, and Review (SEDAR) process. The assessment, approved by the Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee, shows the stock has been overfished for several decades, and despite regulations, overfishing continues.
Here is a statement about the economic effects, from Mr. Harris' testimony (9+ single-spaced pages):
The economic impacts (and associated social impacts) of implementing the Reauthorized Magnuson-Stevens Act for the red snapper fishery will be significant. Although the average overall expected reductions in net operating revenues range from 4 percent to slightly more than 12 percent for the entire commercial snapper-grouper fishery, the effects of Amendment 17A would be highly focused on fishermen in northeast Florida and Georgia because those regions represent the center of the red snapper fishery. Fishermen in these areas would incur the largest losses in absolute and relative terms. The predicted reductions in net operating revenues for fishermen in northeast Florida and Georgia are expected to range between 64 and 71 percent depending on which closure alternative is chosen by the Council.The recreational fishery would be heavily impacted as well, with expected reductions in consumer surplus and net operating revenues ranging from $9.2 to $19.5 million depending on the alternative chosen. Florida and Georgia recreational anglers and for-hire operations would experience reductions in consumer surplus and net operating revenues ranging from 91 percent to 96 percent of the above estimates.
What happens if a member of Congress asks Mr. Harris to define consumer surplus?
(Also, and not to brag, and I'm only 99% sure but, the raw material for those consumer surplus estimates were developed by Haab, Whitehead and McConnell [PDF] and appears frequently in the snapper-grouper fishery management plans. Seriously, it is gratifying when some of this stuff is used to help make decisions.)
The other theme is the need for improved data, including a better MRFSS. From Mr. Harris' testimony:
Concerns with recreational statistics provided through the Marine Recreational Fisheries Statistics Program (MRFSS) are well documented by many sources and need not be repeated here. What does bear additional comment is that statistics for many of the species managed by the South Atlantic Council are measured with considerable imprecision by the MRFSS, even by the program’s own standards.
...
The end result of this suite of characteristics is that many species in the South Atlantic become essentially ‘rare occurrences’ when viewed in the context of a comprehensive sampling program designed to track trends, and rare occurrences in any sampling program are prone to high error.
Haab, Hicks, Schnier and Whitehead recently completed a report where we found the MRFSS supports economic analysis for only four or so recreational species in the South Atlantic (here is the website, I'll post the report soon). So, if you want to estimate the economic effects of the Vermillion snapper recreational closure on November 1 [PDF] your analysis won't be 100% satisfactory.
