Recommended Pilot 

 Projects in Enforcement 



Recommendations on Enforcement Levels 

 and Evaluation (see pages 24 to 29) 



Problem 1: No desirable level of enforcement 

 has been determined, based on a policy deci- 

 sion, as to what level of enforcement is most 

 desirable. 



Recommendation: In order to determine the 

 type of effort and equipment necessary, there 

 should be a specific definition of the desirable 

 level of enforcement, followed by regular 

 assessment of changing enforcement needs 

 and the actual level of enforcement which has 

 been achieved compared to the desired level. 

 In addition, the Regional Councils should 

 make a projection of desired enforcement ac- 

 tions in their areas, possible compliance in- 

 ducements for fisheries in their areas, and po- 

 tential domestic enforcement plans. 



Problem 2; The existing Coast Guard analysis 

 of the appropriate level of enforcement was 

 made without benefit of an adequate method 

 for assessing the benefits and the cost (in 

 social, economic, political, and scientific 

 terms) of various enforcement strategies, that 

 is, the various combinations of aircraft, ships, 

 electronic devices, and imposition of penalties. 



Recommendation: A general analytical 

 system is needed to provide quantitative esti- 

 mates of the impacts of alternative manage- 

 ment techniques and enforcement strategies 

 on the quantities and prices of fish available, 

 the state of recreational fishing, and other 

 measures of the benefits of management. 



Problem 3: Fisheries management-modeling 

 efforts currently being supported by the Na- 

 tional Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra- 

 tion, such as the one at Stanford University, 

 do not include enforcement components. 



Recommendation: The Coast Guard should 

 develop the enforcement component, so that 

 its model could be used in conjunction with 

 one adopted by NOAA. 



The cost of enforcing fishery regulations in 

 the new 200-mile zone may escalate as ex- 

 perience is gained in managing the fisheries, 

 and it may be learned that a higher level of en- 

 forcement is necessary than that which is now 

 planned. Therefore, a reasonable approach to 

 gaining experience with different enforcement 

 techniques is desirable in order to determine 

 which are the most successful and cost-effec- 

 tive methods of achieving the goals of the 

 Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 

 1976. 



The research conducted during this study 

 suggests that such experience might be most 

 efficiently gained through a series of pilot 

 programs in various areas of enforcement. 

 The following four projects are an outline of 

 the types of work which may be useful. These 

 projects are suggested with the assumption 

 that in the long-run, the cost of gaining suffi- 

 cient experience on which to make informed 

 choices and trade-offs in enforcement ac- 

 tivities would be less than the cost of possible 

 erroneous decisions about the use of very ex- 

 pensive, electronic-surveillance systems, the 

 cost of adding large numbers of new and 

 possibly unnecessary air and sea craft, and the 

 cost of possibly failing to protect the fishery 

 resources by adequate enforcement of regula- 

 tions. 



Included in the project discussions are 

 rough-cost estimates whenever such fiscal in- 

 formation was available to OTA. However, it 

 should be pointed out that one of the primary 

 reasons for conducting these projects would 

 be to obtain information that will allow the 

 appropriate agencies to make estimates of the 

 costs of full-scale setup and operation of cer- 

 tain programs. Presently, such information 

 does not exist. 



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