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share of the harvest under open access, they engage in a "race for fish": intense 

 competition to maximize individual catches. The race for fish leads to overfishing, 

 absurdly short seasons, lost gear that kills fish after the season is over, market gluts, 

 declining profits, and massive job loss. Limiting access to fisheries without 

 guaranteeing individual fishers a share of the allowable catch tends to perpetuate the 

 race for fish. Alternatives, such as Individual Transferable Quotas, are available. 

 While problems in ITQ system design and implementation remain, ITQs show 

 considerable promise for improving conservation of fish and the economics of US 

 fisheries. They should be tested and implemented in appropriate fisheries if the tests 

 are successful. 



* Individual Transferable Quotas should be actively studied as a viable alternative 

 to open access and limited access with input controls. Conduct comparative studies. 



* Develop criteria for selecting fisheries amenable to ITQ management and for 

 program design, with a goal of maximizin g the conservation benefits of ITQ 

 management. 



* Because some time will be required to assimilate lessons from past and ongoing 

 quota management experience, we recommend that no new quota management 

 programs be initiated for one year. New quota management programs should be 

 initiated after the evaluation period if they contain provisions to address key 

 problems and promise improvement over existing management regimes in rebuilding 

 depleted fish populations, in allowing sustainable levels of harvest of healthy 

 populations, and in preventing detrimental ecological effects of fisheries. 



* Remove all government grants, loans, tax breaks, and other subsidies which 

 encourage overfishing and economic decisions which conflict with the goal of ensuring 

 sustainable, ecologically-sound fisheries. 



* Establish a fishing industry user fee to provide revenues to cover enforcement costs 

 as well as to fund a sustainable fisheries trust fund. Deploy monies from the trust 

 fund to provide technical assistance and incentives for the fishing industry to operate 

 in compliance with sustainability goals. Protect the trust fund from raids. 



MINIMIZE BYCATCH 



Bycatch is a serious problem because it causes fish mortality which remains 

 undocumented and inadequately controlled. 



* Establish caps on bycatch mortality based on levels needed to ensure sustainable 

 yield and avoid adverse ecological impacts. 



* A process for systematically evaluating gear and banning gear that is unselective 

 and/or damages habitat is needed. 



* Incentives to reduce bycatch, land and report unavoidable bycatch, and reduce 

 dumping ~ as well as severe penalties for dumping - are needed. 



* Examine the feasibility and costs of alternative enforcement strategies to minimize 



