Role of Permit Banks in Catch Shares

“Permit banks” are emerging as a possible tool in the design and implementation of catch-share management programs to preserve fishing opportunities for otherwise disadvantaged members of the fishing industry and their communities.  A “permit bank,” in its most simple form, is a collection of fishing permits held by an organization or individual for the purpose of leasing out the fishing rights associated with those permits.  There can be several types of permit banks, including privately-held permit banks, both for profit or not for profit, or government-funded and government-operated permit banks.  There are several examples of privately-held permit banks in New England, although most are either still in development or only recently established, but the focus of this talk will be on the development of four permit banks by NMFS’s Northeast Regional Office in partnership with the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.  These will be the first NOAA-funded, state-operated permit banks in the region.  The primary purpose of the state-operated permit bank program is to help mitigate potential adverse socio-economic impacts of the transition to catch-share management of the Northeast multispecies (groundfish) fishery.  Permit banks can be used to preserve fishing opportunities for small-scale fishermen operating in small, rural fishing ports that may otherwise be disproportionately negatively affected by the consolidation of fishing effort that often follows implementation of catch-share programs.