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Yesterday President bush proclaimed the creation of a new Marine National Monument and I suggested that perhaps there was a hook. A response posted to a listserv by a fisheries expert said: "You are totally wrong, Scott." And so I dug deeper.
The appended article provides useful background about President Bush's interest in promoting "rights-based fishing" with "dedicated access privileges" --- i.e., privatization of the fishes in the seas. This idea is strongly supported Libertarian thinks tanks and by such markets-based "environmental" organizations as Environmental Defense. Funding for the promotion of these ideas comes from the usual right-wing, anti-democratic, foundations (Koch, Bradley, etc...)
This article is part of a series of similar articles on the topic of marine resource privatization found at the anti-commons blog commonsblog.org. The author is Jane Shaw of PERC. To learn more about current proposals for marine privatization, click both of the links provided below. The link at the end of the page is of particular importance --- it's explains everything from the free-market perspective of PERC's Don Leal.
And why is THAT important? Because, the chances are extremely high that President Bush's interest "to work with regional fish councils to build an improved market-based system to restore our fisheries" (as he said yesterday when signing the proclamation to establish the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands National Monument ) is in fact Don Leal's interest and Leal a leader of the marine privatization movement.
The text of yesterday's proclamation itself appears clean.... but something still smells very fishy.
Yesterday , Bush said "the Ocean Action Plan calls for Congress to reauthorize the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. They need to get that done." But the legislation sponsored by Richard Pombo, Barney Frank and Don Young, H.R. 5018, that would reauthorize Magnuson-Stevens is dreadful and would be harmful to the oceans. "Although it claims to follow recommendations from the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, the Pombo-Frank bill actually weakens current overfishing laws and threatens the long-term viability of ocean fish populations" --- said the National Environmental Trust last month http://www.net.org/proactive/newsroom/release.vtml?id=29100.
Meanwhile "Ocean Champions" www.oceanchampions.org have dclared Pombo "Ocean Enemy #1" Is it possible that the legislation President Bush said needs to "get done" is none other than Pombo's Magnuson-Stevens bill? More to the point, were deals cut yesterday that will facilitate the passage of Pombo's marine bill???? Does that sort of thing actually happen in politics --- or in horse trading???
Scott
--- begin quoted ---
http://commonsblog.org/archives/cat_oceans.php
More on Fish Markets
Posted by Jane Shaw · 22 September 2005 · Oceans
The Bush administration's announcement Sept. 20 that it intends to
encourage rights-based fishing represents significant progress. The
administration wants 8 U.S. marine fisheries to adopt a form of
"dedicated access privileges" by 2010. These privileges include
individual fishing quotas and fishing cooperatives, among other
rights-based tools. PERC (the Property and Environment Research Center)
has been working with Environmental Defense and the Reason Public
Policy Institute to acquaint policy makers with the environmental and
economic benefits of such rights.
"The administration has taken an important step in supporting these
tools, which throughout the world have led to environmental
improvements, safer fishing, lower costs, and higher profits for
fishermen," says Donald R. Leal, PERC Senior Fellow and author of
Fencing the Fishery and other publications featuring rights-based
fishing tools.
"We wish that the administration had gone further by setting an earlier
deadline and by making a firmer commitment to dedicated access
privileges, but this is a start. Where they have been adopted, these
privileges (DAPs) have proven to be a tool that is superior to
government regulation," Leal adds.
PERC has long been an advocate of rights-based tools for preventing
overfishing. A variety of names have been applied to these tools. The
broadest term is "dedicated access privileges" (DAPs), which include
individual fishing quotas (IFQs), fishing cooperatives, and others.
IFQs give fishermen a right to a percentage of the total allowable
catch within a fishery. A fisherman who holds a 0.1 percent share in
the Gulf of Mexico red snapper fishery is entitled to 3,000 pounds of
snapper for the season when the total allowable catch is 3,000,000
pounds. Because IFQs are transferable, current holders can adjust the
size of their fishing operations by buying and selling quotas; those
wishing to enter a fishery can buy or lease quotas from current holders.
IFQs have been implemented in fisheries in the United States (such as
the Alaska halibut fishery), Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.
Because IFQs assure fishermen that they have a right to catch a
specific amount of fish each season, fishing seasons have been
lengthened and as a result the dangerous rush to capture the most fish
as fast as possible has been eliminated. Accidents have declined and
overfishing has been reduced.
PERC has worked for several years with the Reason Foundation and
Environmental Defense to inform policy-makers about the benefits of
individual fishing quotas (IFQs). A PERC/Reason Foundation Web site
(www.ifqsforfisheries.org) highlights the benefits of rights-based
fishing around the world.
In recent years, several foundations, including the Sand County
Foundation Bradley Fund for the Environment, the Alex C. Walker
Charitable Trust, the Charles G. Koch Foundation, and the Wilkinson
Foundation, have supported research and education into the potential
for dedicated access privileges.
For more information about IFQs, DAPs, and PERC's study of rights-based
fishing, contact Jane Shaw at
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
or 406-587-9591 or see
www.ifqsforfisheries.org.
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- Privatization 
