Effects of the West Coast Groundfish Trawl Individual Fishing (IFQ) Program on Crew

The west coast limited entry trawl fishery transitioned to an individual fishing quota (IFQ) program in January of 2011. The implementation of IFQ programs often results in a dramatic restructuring of a fishery which can affect crew. Crew are an essential component of any fishery, however, due to data limitations, there are very few analyses that look at the effect of specific fishery management actions on crew. We combine catch data, economic data, and social science data to examine how crew have been affected by the implementation of the new management program. Average wages per crew member, increased from $32,000 per year for the two years leading up the the IFQ program (2009-2010) to $52,000 per year in the first two years of the program (2011-2012). This corresponded with a decrease in total number of crew positions of about 25%.  To understand the specific drivers influencing these changes, we explore how wages change per day and per ton, by vessel targeting choices, and vessel characteristics. We then explore how these changes affect individual crew members by looking at whether they rely on the catch share fishery as their primary income source and how long they have participated in the fishery.