Beeliner:
The daily trip limit for the commercial harvest of vermilion snapper in federal waters of the South Atlantic is reduced from 1,000 pounds gutted weight to 500 pounds gutted weight, effective 12:01 a.m. (local time) August 28, 2016. NOAA Fisheries has determined 75 percent of the July-December quota of 431,460 pounds whole weight will be landed by August 28, 2016.
Reduction of the commercial vermilion snapper trip limit when 75 percent of the July-December quota is reached in federal waters of the South Atlantic complies with regulations implemented under the Fishery Management Plan for the Snapper-Grouper Fishery of the South Atlantic Region. The 500-pound gutted weight trip limit applies to vessels with a South Atlantic Unlimited Snapper-Grouper Permit fishing for vermilion snapper in or from the federal waters in the South Atlantic region. The 500-pound gutted weight trip limit will remain in effect until the end of the current July – December 2016 fishing season or until the quota is reached and vermilion snapper closes, whichever occurs first.
Imagine that food at the grocery store is an unpriced good and when you go grocery open-access shopping, in order to limit the amount of free food that you could grab, they only allowed you to fill up a small cart. Isn't that stupid? And when they started running out of food they only allowed you to fill up half your small cart so that others could get some food before it ran out. But, you could make multiple trips to the store. Now that is really stupid. All it does is raise the cost of getting food when the real problem is that the food is an unpriced good.
This is from a 2011 post mourning the day that catch shares died in the South Atlantic:
From the SAFMC's South Atlantic Update:
In March, the Council approved a motion to “terminate all work relative to catch share development in Amendment 21” (catch share development would continue for the golden crab fishery and wreckfish). The amendment, known as the Comprehensive Catch Share Amendment, addressed the possible use of catch share programs for snapper grouper species currently under management through quotas with the exception of snowy grouper. The amendment also included options for effort and participation reduction and endorsement actions. ...
The South Atlantic Council has explored the use of catch shares over the past few years, using work groups and soliciting public input. During discussion of the motion, Council members noted that catch share programs are considered one of many management tools and that the removal of their consideration in Amendment 21 does not preclude their future consideration. The Council will review the remaining actions in Amendment 21 during its June meeting.
Catch shares are individual (transferable) quotos, more or less. The Socioeconomic Panel of the Statisical and Scientific Committee of the SAFMC (got all that straight) reviewed the catch shares provision of Amendment 21 and made some recommendations for the potential development of such a program. None of these recommendations included "terminate all work relative to catch share development in Amendment 21." Here is what we said about golden crab catch shares:
We recommend adoption of Alternative 2 under Action 1; Implement a catch share program for the golden crab fishery. With the understanding that current permit holders favor the formation of a catch-share program, the SEP agrees that such a program will facilitate the management goals to “create incentives for conservation and regulatory compliance” and provide participants with the opportunity to earn “long-run benefits from efforts to conserve and manage the golden crab resource.” Exclusive rights to shares of the allowable catch will allow permit holders the security to take least-cost methods to harvest the catch and may encourage harvest methods that maximize quality and ex-vessel revenues. The net benefits of the program will likely be increased by increased transferability of the catch shares.
The snapper-grouper fishery is more complicated than golden crab but I think the same sentiments would apply.
