On of the allocated harvest (either a share of the total

On of the allocated harvest (either a share of the total allowable catch or an area in which to fish). This approach provides motivation for fishers to act as stewards of the resource and allows fished populations to increase (34). The switch to RBFs has seen successes at the local and national levels, further illustrating how this approach, if appropriately used, can be scaled to strengthen the feedbacks that lead to desired economic, social, and environmental outcomes (13, 35). The United States, for example, has seen impressive turnaround in multiple fisheries as a result of both (i) strong national legislation–the Magnuson Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act Amendments of 1996 and 2006 (MSA), which required ending overfishing and rebuilding stocks through firm science-based annual catch limits and severe consequences for exceeding those limits–and (ii ) a new policy finalized by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in 2010 to encourage and facilitate RBF management, called “catch shares,” in appropriate United States fisheries in federal waters (14, 36?8). We discuss three examples of the results of these changes. In the West Coast Groundfish Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) fishery in United States federal waters, the changes have moved a disaster fishery to a model of fisher stewardship. Even after becoming a limited entry fishery in 1994, the economic incentives for individual fishers, coupled with insufficient understanding of the life histories of some species, favored overexploitation. The result was that in 2000, this multispecies fishery was declared a federal disaster after decades of overexploitation under conventional fishery management (39). The combined “stick” of the MSA, plus the “carrot” provided by the IFQ (a catch hare) program begun in 2011, helped turn things around. The IFQ program removed perverse incentives A-836339 web associated with conventional management and realigned short-term and longterm incentives so they were no longer in conflict. Because fishers have a guaranteed fraction of the catch, they benefit directly from a well-managed, healthy fishery and are incentivized to ensure the catches are not too high, the ecosystem is healthy, and cheaters are not EPZ004777 biological activity tolerated by their peers. In this case, new economic incentives reset social norms with positive benefits.Lubchenco et al.The IFQ approach synchronized conservation and economic incentives such that fishers’ economic interests coincide with the health of the fishery. Moreover, with the flexibility of knowing the amount of fish each shareholder can catch, fishers can plan their fishing season, make reasonable financial and business decisions, form risk-pools to minimize risk from catching nontarget species, establish new no-fishing zones, and fish under safe weather conditions. The secure access lowered the perverse incentive to race-to-fish that was harmful to fish stocks and habitat and it provided more predictable financial security and more stable access to the market. Since the IFQ has been implemented, fishers have seen reductions in bycatch and depleted species (14) and increases in fishery profits (40), and scientists have documented recoveries of many of the species associated with the fishery (38), often significantly faster than projected. The biological results from implementing catch limits together with the flexibility and innovation allowed by IFQs have been dramatic, with 7 of the 10 overfished species of groundfish now reb.On of the allocated harvest (either a share of the total allowable catch or an area in which to fish). This approach provides motivation for fishers to act as stewards of the resource and allows fished populations to increase (34). The switch to RBFs has seen successes at the local and national levels, further illustrating how this approach, if appropriately used, can be scaled to strengthen the feedbacks that lead to desired economic, social, and environmental outcomes (13, 35). The United States, for example, has seen impressive turnaround in multiple fisheries as a result of both (i) strong national legislation–the Magnuson Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act Amendments of 1996 and 2006 (MSA), which required ending overfishing and rebuilding stocks through firm science-based annual catch limits and severe consequences for exceeding those limits–and (ii ) a new policy finalized by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in 2010 to encourage and facilitate RBF management, called “catch shares,” in appropriate United States fisheries in federal waters (14, 36?8). We discuss three examples of the results of these changes. In the West Coast Groundfish Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) fishery in United States federal waters, the changes have moved a disaster fishery to a model of fisher stewardship. Even after becoming a limited entry fishery in 1994, the economic incentives for individual fishers, coupled with insufficient understanding of the life histories of some species, favored overexploitation. The result was that in 2000, this multispecies fishery was declared a federal disaster after decades of overexploitation under conventional fishery management (39). The combined “stick” of the MSA, plus the “carrot” provided by the IFQ (a catch hare) program begun in 2011, helped turn things around. The IFQ program removed perverse incentives associated with conventional management and realigned short-term and longterm incentives so they were no longer in conflict. Because fishers have a guaranteed fraction of the catch, they benefit directly from a well-managed, healthy fishery and are incentivized to ensure the catches are not too high, the ecosystem is healthy, and cheaters are not tolerated by their peers. In this case, new economic incentives reset social norms with positive benefits.Lubchenco et al.The IFQ approach synchronized conservation and economic incentives such that fishers’ economic interests coincide with the health of the fishery. Moreover, with the flexibility of knowing the amount of fish each shareholder can catch, fishers can plan their fishing season, make reasonable financial and business decisions, form risk-pools to minimize risk from catching nontarget species, establish new no-fishing zones, and fish under safe weather conditions. The secure access lowered the perverse incentive to race-to-fish that was harmful to fish stocks and habitat and it provided more predictable financial security and more stable access to the market. Since the IFQ has been implemented, fishers have seen reductions in bycatch and depleted species (14) and increases in fishery profits (40), and scientists have documented recoveries of many of the species associated with the fishery (38), often significantly faster than projected. The biological results from implementing catch limits together with the flexibility and innovation allowed by IFQs have been dramatic, with 7 of the 10 overfished species of groundfish now reb.