Review of Management Options for the Landing Obligation

Section 8: Conclusion

8.1 The remit of this paper was to provide a review of management options for the implementation of the landing obligation in Scotland. The evidence base for the report was produced from an analysis of available information regarding current best international practices concerned with bycatch and discarding reductions and from a series of key informant interviews with stakeholders and experts connected to the Scottish fishing industry. The paper provides evidence that amongst representatives of the Scottish fishing industry and key industry experts, considerable support exists for the use of innovation in implementing the landing obligation in Scotland.

8.2 Within the interviews, the management options that received support tended to work towards improving the alignment between quota holdings and catches and create social, economic and legal incentives for fishermen to adjust their behaviour and fish more selectively. A recurring theme was that the management rules regarding what happened to a catch governed by the landing obligation once it comes on board (specifically rules governing monitoring and enforcement and the extent of quota affordability and accessibility) will be key determinants of whether behavioural changes and a movement towards greater selectivity in fishing practices is realised. Greater selectivity is likely to come at a cost for individual fishermen; incentives and appropriate management mechanisms will be therefore be vital in insuring that at the margin the cost of adjustment is less than that of discarding or landing illegally. As Heath et al (2014) point out, while the use of management and legislative measures to improve selectivity will likely be technically and economically costly and challenging, forcing adjustments in fishermen's behaviour has the potential to deliver economic advantages alongside conservation gains through an increase in catch weight value.

8.3 In terms of the management options discussed, two were identified across the board as having high relevance to Scotland. The first concerned adjustment in the quota trading mechanisms both within Scotland and at a European level. An almost unanimous agreement existed across the participants that quota swapping, leasing and trading arrangements are beneficial as they work to correct inefficiencies within initial allocation. Nonetheless, a strong message was that the mechanisms for quota trading within Scotland and across Europe exhibit a high degree of information inefficiency and a lack of transparency. In terms of correcting this, the option that received greatest support was for the facilitation of online and real-time trading platforms.

8.4 Political and value-based attitudes were most commonly referred to as the key obstacles to facilitating greater transparency and tradability. Several interviewed suggested several ways in which these constraints could be lessened such as through the operation of quota transfer windows, greater information on where quota is held (as opposed to FQAs) and research into the catch compositions of national fleets and the point at which they encounter specific choke species. More than a few pressed a general point that policies which attempt to free up and reduce the cost of quota leasing, and hence the cost of compliance, should be a priority.

8.5 Alongside support for changes to facilitate flexibility and transparency in the transfer of quota, evidence from the interviews uncovered strong support for adjustments to be made for how quota is managed, specifically for the TR1 and TR2 fleet. The option of pooling quota, either at a central government level or within POs in order to cover unavoidable catches, received a high level of support. The notion of the Government holding back a proportion of national quota holdings and managing this centrally was viewed as a pragmatic response by all but one interviewee, who preferred to see this solely as a role for the POs.

8.6 The application of international pooling systems in Scotland, or the extension of current unofficial PO pooling techniques, requires considerable future research in order to examine the managerial requirements required to mitigate issues such as free-riding. If this option was taken forward in any form, evidence from the operation of the US West Coast Whiting Pool, which has developed a highly effective internal management policy, provides a good starting point for the design of pooling systems within Scotland, in particular for POs. An outcome of the data provided by international fisheries managers is the potential for this management option to create incentives for behavioural change alongside the initial intention of creating a buffer to account for irregularities and uncertainty. In the US and Canada, where similar schemes have reported considerable success, social incentives and technology are used to compliment economic incentives to fish more selectivity and avoid unwanted catch and choke species. A key lesson Scotland could learn would be the design of carrot-and-stick access conditions that reward good behaviour related to both selectivity and compliance.

8.7 In relation to the issues of monitoring and enforcement, a strong consensus from the interviews was that effective controls were a prerequisite and that individuals had to associate a high financial risk with illegal landings and illegal discarding. This was vital for compliance and in creating conditions in which fishermen will make the crucial adjustments to fishing practices. From industry and non-industry representatives, the most common view was that Remote Electronic Monitoring ( REM) is the only way to achieve effective monitoring. REM uses CCTV, hydraulic sensors VMS data to record hauling and sorting activities. Secondly, a strong argument was made from industry and non-industry contributors for a movement towards bottom-up management, most commonly through the ability of POs to exercise real-time powers to stop vessels going to sea if they held inadequate quota quantities or compositions.

8.8 Overall, the examination of international practices has proved formative in assessing the management options for implementing and management of the landing obligation in Scotland. However, a point to press is that the majority of countries operating discard and bycatch reduction strategies- notably Canada, the US and New Zealand- all have relatively high levels of sovereignty regarding the design of fisheries policy and the control of national waters. In Europe, the situation is complicated by the shared management of stocks through the CFP. An issue that is likely to undermine efforts related to the creation or a real and perceived level playing field as to how the landing obligation is implemented, enforced and observed across the various Member States.

8.9 Looking forward, what can be advocated based upon the attitudes and perceptions garnered within this report is for Scotland to build upon the precedent set in other EU Member States, such as Denmark, in order to create a platform for effective and innovative behavioural change at European and regional level.