The encyclopedia · Strategy & Leadership · Strategic decision · 2007–2011
Gulf red snapper IFQ ended a 121-day derby and stretched the season to 365 days
NOAA's 2007 catch shares stopped the race to fish: season went from 121 days to year-round and quota stopped being busted.
NOAA Fisheries · Gulf of Mexico commercial red snapper fishermen
The solution
Gulf red snapper had been overfished since the late 1980s. Managers limited the commercial catch with quotas and short seasons, which turned fishing into a derby: boats raced to harvest before the closure, gluts crashed prices, discards were high, and conditions were unsafe.
On 1 January 2007 NOAA Fisheries implemented an Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) program for the commercial fishery. Each eligible shareholder received a percentage of the annual quota, transferable and divisible, and fishing could happen any time the quota allowed.
The derby ended: average season length went from 121 days (2004–2006 baseline) to a full-year 365-day fishery, the commercial quota was no longer exceeded, and prices strengthened even as the quota was cut to rebuild the stock. Shareholders consolidated, with the number of shareholders falling about 25%.
Why it worked
- Tradable shares turn the shared pool into a personal asset worth pacing
- Year-round fishing ends gluts, so prices rise without raising the catch
- Quota can be cut for conservation without triggering a race
- Leasing lets efficient boats fish while owners stay invested
What can be applied
When everyone races for a shared pool, all lose value and safety; divide the pool into tradable rights and the race disappears, since the constraint becomes each holder's own asset to pace.
Aftermath
Red snapper stock continued rebuilding; by 2013 quotas had risen about 70% from the program's early years, waste of marketable fish fell roughly half, fishermen earned about 33% more per pound, and after the Deepwater Horizon spill the fleet built a fish-by-fish traceability system. The program became the model for later Gulf catch shares.
Sources
- Gulf of Mexico Red Snapper Individual Fishing Quota Program (Catch Share Performance Indicator Series)
- I'll Have the Gulf Red Snapper, Please
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