Using online data visualization and analysis to facilitate public involvement in management of catch share programs. (December 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Schug, Donald M.; Taylor, Peter H.; Iudicello, Suzanne; Swasey, Jill H.
• Is Part Of: Marine policy. Volume 122(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-12
• Subjects: Fisheries management -- Catch shares -- Data confidentiality -- Performance indicators -- Data visualization -- Stakeholder engagement; Marine resources -- Economic aspects -- Periodicals; Fisheries -- Periodicals; Ressources marines -- Aspect économique -- Périodiques; Pêches -- Périodiques; Fisheries; Marine resources -- Economic aspects; Periodicals; 333.916405
• DOI: 10.1016/j.marpol.2020.104272
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0308-597X

Abstract

Abstract: This case study examines the experience of the interdisciplinary Measuring the Effects of Catch Shares (MECS) project, a five-year demonstration project designed to explore the opportunities and constraints for third-party acquisition, organization, and communication of government fisheries statistics in order to track the ecological, economic, social, and governance outcomes of catch share programs. Catch share programs, whereby fishery managers allocate to private entities percentages of the total amount of fish that can be caught in a year, have been used to manage some US fisheries since the 1990s. Given the high financial stakes of commercial fisheries and the wide-ranging impacts ascribed to these programs, they are among the most controversial and contentious tools of contemporary fisheries management. The goal of the MECS project was to create an interactive, web-based platform for conveying a set of neutral, scientific indicators based on the best available fisheries data that could be used by fishing industry participants, fishery managers, and other interested parties to supplement and inform their own understanding of catch share program effects. The MECS project focused on the effects of two US catch share programs: the Northeast Multispecies Sector Program implemented in 2010 in the Northeast groundfish fishery and the Shorebased IFQ Program implemented in 2011 in the West Coast groundfish trawl fishery. The MECS project encountered data access challenges but ultimately succeeded in developing a website that has been received by members of the private and public sector alike as a useful tool that brings together and communicates disparate information that is not otherwise readily accessible.