Conservancy Purchases Federal Trawling Permits and Vessels to Protect Marine Areas in California

Precedent-setting collaborative effort with industry & regulators protects 3.8 million acres of ocean off central California coast

Morro Bay, Calif.—June 27, 2006—The Nature Conservancy announced today the purchase of six federal trawling permits and four trawling vessels from commercial fishermen in Morro Bay as part of a collaborative effort to protect a vast swath of ocean off the coast of central California and help reform a troubled fishery. The precedent-setting acquisitions represent the nation’s first private buy out of Pacific fishing vessels and permits for conservation purposes.

"By working cooperatively with the fishing industry, regulators and other nonprofits, The Nature Conservancy was able to persuade fishery managers to protect 3.8 million acres of ocean and reduce the bottom-trawling effort in large areas off the central California coast by 83 percent," said Chuck Cook, director of the Conservancy’s California Coastal and Marine Program.

"As a result, everybody wins. Degraded seafloor communities and several depleted fish species will now get the chance to recover, and the fishing industry will now have the opportunity to work with nongovernmental organizations and regulators to create new high-value markets for sustainably harvested groundfish."

"The innovative and collaborative approach illustrated by this program is a key to effective conservation in the 21st century," said Conservancy President and CEO Steve McCormick. "We are hopeful this effort will encourage policymakers to pursue other new creative solutions to similar challenges in marine systems in other parts of the country."

The Conservancy initiated the trawler buy-out program at Morro Bay as a pilot project three years ago. Concerned by a National Academy of Sciences report that documented the negative environmental effects of bottom trawling, the Conservancy and its nonprofit partner, Environmental Defense, approached Morro Bay trawl fishermen and harbormasters about developing a market-based plan that would protect seafloor communities and help boost a troubled fishery.

Trawlers drag large, weighted nets along the sea bottom, damage habitat and scoop up fish and other creatures not targeted by the fisherman. The catch they produce is high in volume but often low in value, and it puts pressure on several other species.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has declared six species of groundfish depleted. As a result of industry overcapitalization and over-fishing, revenues from Pacific groundfish trawling fell from $110 million in 1987 to $35 million in 2003.

Faced with economic uncertainty, the Morro Bay trawl fisherman and the Conservancy hammered out a deal: they’d work cooperatively to identify diverse marine habitats that would be off limits to trawling and submit those recommendations to the Pacific Fishery Management Council. Should their proposal be adopted, The Nature Conservancy would buy back permits and vessels to reduce trawling efforts and help ease the loss of fishing grounds.

In June 2005, the Fishery Council approved the consensus no-trawl map, which bans bottom trawling in 3.8 million acres of ocean—an area roughly the size of Connecticut—between Point Conception off the coast of Santa Barbara, and Point Sur south of Monterey Bay. The U.S. Secretary of Commerce signed the map and additional closed areas into regulation in May 2006.

"NOAA has always relied on the creative energy of stakeholders to come up with new and better ways to protect marine resources," said William Hogarth, head of NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service, the federal agency that manages marine fish stocks throughout the nation. "By working closely with fishermen, the Pacific Fishery Management Council and NOAA, the Nature Conservancy has found a surprising and effective new way of using private money to conserve a public resource."

"One of the most serious obstacles to ocean conservation—and to the fishing industry itself—is that too many boats are chasing too few fish," said Andy Rosenberg, professor of natural resources at the University of New Hampshire and former deputy director of NOAA’s fisheries service. "The Nature Conservancy’s privately funded buy-out strategy augments governmental regulatory programs and is an important and innovative step in moving the United States toward more sustainable fisheries."

"The deal with The Nature Conservancy provided me with options I didn’t previously have," said veteran fisherman Gordon Fox, who sold his permit and vessel to the Conservancy. "It will give me a chance to try new, less costly methods of fishing off the central coast of California."

For now, the Conservancy is shelving the permits it has acquired and banking the harvest rights. In the future, however, it may request that regulators allow the Conservancy to lease back some permits to central coast fisherman who would use finer-scale, more selective gear and help create a certified market for sustainably harvested groundfish.

In addition to the six permits, the Conservancy has purchased four trawling vessels and is exploring alternative uses for them, such as oceanographic research, marine debris removal or marine surveillance and enforcement. If new owners cannot be found, the vessels will be demolished and recycled. One vessel associated with the acquired trawling permits will remain with its current owner, who holds permits for other types of fishing. However, the vessel will be legally constrained from bottom trawling for groundfish in the future. Any fisherman who sells his permit to the Conservancy can not re-enter the trawl groundfishery.

"We’ve shown we can all work together to protect both the environment and commercial fishing," said Chris Kubiak, a trawler who sold his vessel and permit to the Conservancy and played a lead role in developing the no-trawl map. "This deal will help us to keep supplying the country with healthy seafood."

While federal agencies have conducted buy-back programs using public funds, the Morro Bay buy-out is the first on the Pacific coast to be privately financed. The cost of acquiring a permit and vessel runs several hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The Nature Conservancy is interested in protecting the waters off California’s central coast because they include large offshore banks, rocky reefs, kelp beds, coral gardens and some of North America’s largest and deepest underwater canyons—all of which support a diverse array of wildlife.

Trawl permit owners in Monterey, Moss Landing and Half Moon Bay have also expressed an interest in selling their permits and vessels to The Nature Conservancy, but those deals would be conditioned upon the Fishery Council’s passage of more collaboratively designed no-trawl zones.

"The Conservancy’s Morro Bay pilot project demonstrates what can be accomplished when the conservation community works with regulators and the fishing industry to address complex problems affecting our natural resources and livelihoods," said Mark Burget, executive director of the Conservancy’s California Program. "In a state like California—where our natural areas are increasingly feeling the pinch of rapid, unplanned growth—collaboration is the key to protecting our land, our water and our way of life for future generations."

The innovative trawler buy-out program is one of many strategies used by the Conservancy to conserve important ocean and coastal areas for the benefit of marine life, local communities and economies around the world. Through its Global Marine Initiative, the Conservancy works to protect and restore habitats—from shellfish reefs, sea grasses and kelp beds to mangroves, spawning sites, coral reefs and estuaries—by promoting such strategies as marine protected area networks, community-based restoration and a range of market-based approaches.