GFA Press Release:

(December 3, 2011) The Gulf Fishermen’s Association represents several hundred Commercial Fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico and more than half of the Red Snapper and Grouper industry. We are dedicated to providing fresh domestic seafood to America’s citizens year-round in a sustainable fishery. 

We can tell America first-hand how fishing jobs were prior to implementation of our catch share programs. Our industry was eating itself alive. The more we competed, the shorter our seasons became and the longer we had to run to catch fish. The science was right, fish stocks were declining. Shorter seasons caused greater waste, gluts of degraded product, lower prices, and less income. As income dropped we fished with dilapidated boats in worse weather with less qualified crews for fewer fish. Things got so bad that a plan was developed that would eliminate more than a third of the boats in the fishery. Cheap fish worked great for the big fish houses and the Mexican fishermen who sold to them during our closures, but not so well for American fishermen.

In search of a solution, Gulf fishermen worked with the regional Fishery Management Council to develop catch share programs. Both programs were approved by more than 80% in referendums of reliant fishermen.  Today, we have real jobs, year round, for the first time in many years. When we go fishing, we actually catch fish again, and are becoming profitable. We are starting to enjoy real lives, with less danger. Prices are up, and imports are down. Qualified fishermen are in demand.  And the most incredible thing? While that is happening we are rebuilding our fisheries by avoiding overfished stocks and reducing waste. Many responsible fishermen have been able to fish for several years with near zero dead discards of overfished stocks. This would be impossible with any other program. Fishing year-round while rebuilding the fishery is a great thing for jobs now, and in the future.

Not one single fish has been taken from anyone for our programs. We are producing better science, under discrete catch limits that are easier to enforce, with fewer wasted fish, and fishing more sustainably than ever in the history of Gulf fishery management. This benefits every fishermen and every American, yet we are amazed at some of the claims we have heard even from legislators.

This misguided thinking is manifested in the flawed legislative proposal offered by Rep. Jon Runyan (HR 2772). Mr. Runyan has tried to disguise his bill as a “jobs bill”. What it really does is sabotage the future of fishermen and their jobs by eliminating catch shares as an option.

Lastly, we want to address the common mischaracterization as “privatization of the resource”. Prior to our catch share programs, permitted fishermen were unlimited as to how many fish they could catch. Now fishermen are capped according to their landings history, and not one fish more. Fishermen don’t “own” the fish; they simply have a fishing license that is proportionate to their investment in the fishery. In order for one fisherman to catch more, another fisherman has to forego that fishing privilege so that overfishing doesn’t occur. Income for trading this privilege or catching the fish is all taxable income. Unlike open access fisheries, every single fish is made available to American taxpayers through federally authorized seafood wholesalers. More so than ever, the public owns the fish. The fisherman simply has a license to catch them, and that could be revoked at any time.

Regardless of the heated Washington DC rhetoric, the facts are this: We are delivering fresh domestic seafood to America year-round while at the same time rebuilding our fishery and its future. This is a great thing for both commercial and recreational fishermen, and for the two hundred million taxpayers that rely on us for fresh domestic seafood.