CATCH SHARES

[Jack Hexter]

Catch Shares control fishermen, not fish.

[Captain Fish]

Catch Shares are not about conservation. They are about MONEY and CONTROL.

A catch share is an exclusive guarantee that whoever holds the catch share has the exclusive right to harvest a certain percentage of the total allowable catch of a particular species of marine life. That’s a mouthful, and you read it correctly.

Catch Shares are NOT GOOD for "recreational fishing, commercial fishing, and charter fishing". They will increase the costs of fishing substantially, to the point of many not being able to fish at all anymore. This Natural Resource, belongs to all the people, not just a few of the most wealthy. All in all, these Individual fishing quotas (IFQ) “catch-share” programs, are going to be bad for fishermen, bad for ecosystems and bad for consumers.

Catch Share, or individual fishing quotas, which would allocate personally owned shares of the catch of public fisheries only to certain fishermen

So what does this mean for you and me? Tighter regulations. Shorter fishing seasons. Higher prices. Less boats on the water. What does this mean for our economy? I don’t even want to think about it.