The Coast Guard has stressed the need for 

 easily enforceable regulations as an important 

 factor in successful enforcement. Aiming 

 toward that goal, the Coast Guard favors a 

 NMFS proposal to reduce most regulations to 

 limitations on the amount of effort expended 

 fishing or the number of days spent in a cer- 

 tain area. Such limitations are next to 

 meaningless, however, because there is no de- 

 pendable equation for measuring catch rates 

 based on vessel time in an area. Past data used 

 in such calculations haven't been verified. In 

 addition, new technology and improvements 

 in fishing techniques make any equation sub- 

 ject to constant change. Shipboard observers 

 would be in the best position to provide 

 analysis of the relationships between vessel 

 time, fishing effort, and catch rate. 



Foreign fishermen will realize that from 

 their view the observer is primarily a police- 

 man. The potential penalties for violations 

 noted by the observer could be high, but the 

 value of an illegal catch may be even higher. 

 Therefore, foreign fishermen may attempt to 

 bribe, harm, or deceive the observers, frustrat- 

 ing their scientific and enforcement functions. 



Present thinking at the Coast Guard is that 

 such drawbacks exceed the enforcement value 

 of onboard observers although the observers 

 would be very useful for collecting scientific 

 and management data for NMFS. 34 



OTA research suggests otherwise: a near- 

 blanket program of mandatory shipboard ob- 

 servers may be the simplest way to obtain the 

 detailed information about fishing activities 

 and response to fisheries regulations which 

 will be necessary in developing a dependable, 

 cost-effective enforcement program. 



In addition, the Federal Government's 

 failure to implement an extensive observer 

 program will remove from the Regional 



Councils the option of charging a fee for il- 

 legal bycatch. Some council members feel that 

 such a fee, based on actual bycatch figures 

 provided by observers, would be more suc- 

 cessful than gear restrictions in reducing the 

 actual amount of bycatch because it would 

 force fishermen to find their own means of not 

 catching fish which cut into their profit. 35 



The observer program is an area in which 

 there are a wide range of opinions among the 

 many parties interested in enforcement of 

 fisheries regulations. However, the limited use 

 of observers to date provides no basis for 

 resolving these differences. A pilot project 

 would offer actual experience on which to 

 evaluate the cost and usefulness of observers 

 in a combined enforcement-information 

 gathering role. 



41 



