Opinion ID: 808185
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Limited access programs

Text: Beginning in 1990, the Fishery Management Councils began to regulate certain fisheries by adopting programs limiting those who could enter and participate in the fisheries. See 16 U.S.C. § 1853(b)(6) (authorizing “limited access system[s] . . . in order to achieve optimum yield”). These programs were referred to as “individual fishing quota” programs, under which individual fishery participants received privileges to harvest a specific quantity of fish. In 1996, Congress imposed a temporary moratorium on new quota programs until the National Academy of Sciences 2 “Fishing community” means a “community which is substantially dependent on or substantially engaged in the harvest or processing of fishery resources to meet social and economic needs, and includes fishing vessel owners, operators, and crew and United States fish processors that are based in such community.” 16 U.S.C. § 1802(17). PACIFIC COAST FEDERATION v. BLANK 10755 studied those programs and their effects on fishing communities. Pub. L. No. 104-297, § 108(f), 110 Stat. 3559, 3577-79 (1996). The resulting report concluded that quota programs can be effective solutions to a host of fishery-related problems, including economic inefficiency, overcapitalization (too many resources directed at too few fish), and overfishing, but that such programs also can have serious adverse impacts on fishing communities. The report ultimately recommended lifting the quota moratorium, subject to the report’s guidance. The report noted that quota programs are most likely to be successful when their objectives are clear and there is “broad stakeholder support and participation.” Finally, the report emphasized the need for quota programs to be designed on a fishery-by-fishery basis. In 2007, Congress reauthorized the MSA and lifted the quota moratorium by adding a section that authorizes “limited access privilege programs.” Pub. L. No. 109-479, § 106, 120 Stat. 3575, 3586 (2007) (codified at 16 U.S.C. § 1853a). Under such programs, of which quota programs are a subset, fishery participants receive “privileges” (or, in the case of quota programs, “quota shares”) to harvest a certain portion of the total catch allowed for a particular species. 16 U.S.C. § 1802(26). NMFS and the Fishery Management Councils must structure limited access programs in accordance with various requirements, some of which concern fishing communities and form the basis of the plaintiffs’ arguments in this case. See infra Discussion, § A (discussing 16 U.S.C. § 1853a(c)(3), (5)).