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Licensing of
commercial fisheries must be designed to meet basic goals, objectives,
and philosophical requirements. Some goals may be mutually exclusive
and no management plan will satisfy all goals. However, the goals
and objectives of a licensing system provide the rational and objective
basis for choosing one management approach over another.
The following
list identifies some of those goals. This list was developed by
the attendees of the January
27 forum at the Corless Auditorium, URI Bay Campus.
A
commercial fishing license system should:
- Provide
a clear definition and categorization of commercial fisherman
- Ensure
the long-term health of commercial fish stocks (abundance, distribution,
population structure)
- Ensure
the long-term economic health of the industry
- Ensure
the short-term economic health of the industry
- Ensure
fair access to the industry and resources to everyone, now and
in the future
- Optimize
access to RI resident
- A
tool to obtain accurate data on the number of fisherman
- A
tool to obtain accurate data on fisheries effort and harvest
- A
tool to distinguish different categories of users
- Collect
fees for enforcement and management
- Ensure
full-time employment to fishermen
- Allows
for enforcement or management goals
- Maximizes
the benefits to the citizens of RI from the available fishery
resources
- Not
jeopardize the ability of, and reciprocity to, RI fishermen to
fish outside RI waters
- Support
regional management efforts
- Make
it possible to be compliant with regional management efforts
- Impose
no unreasonable burden on holders of licenses (regulated users)
- Support
a fair allocation of access to the resources
- Minimize
future conflicts and confusion
- Minimize
dislocation and uncompensated economic hardships
- Provide
a mechanism through which the components of fishing effort can
be identified and controlled
- Facilitate
education of and distribution of information to user groups
- Provide
a mechanism through which the components of fishing mortality
can be identified and controlled
- Maintain
the stewardship relationship between the fishermen and their resource
- Minimize
speculative investment and absentee ownership
- Identify
scientifically deficient areas for suitable management controls
- Identify
environmentally deficient areas for suitable management controls
- Improve
integrated consideration of market factors, economic factors,
stock condition, and fishery management
- Be
integrated with other environmental initiatives in the Bay and
RI waters
- Be
flexible and responsive to change
- (NOTE
by attendees, we should review historical documents, debates,
projects, and initiatives for other possible goals for this list)
The following
synopsis of goals was offered by email. The goals above can be condensed
into five basic categories:
1) facilitate data collection for management
2) collect fees for mgt and enforcement
3) facilitate enforcement
4) maximize benefit to society
5) allocate resources among users
If you wish
to contribute an objective, email Peg
Parker (pparker@ids.net) a concise description of the goal.
We reserve the right to edit your contribution for clarity and brevity.
Authors of objectives will not be indicated on the web.
 
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