West Coast Communities and Catch Shares: The Early Years of Social Change

The Pacific Coast Groundfish Trawl Fishery transitioned to a catch shares program in January 2011. The Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Social Study was designed to measure associated social changes and impacts on individuals and communities. Selected survey and interview data from the baseline data collection in 2010 and the first supplemental data collection effort in 2012 are aggregated at the community level and analyzed for initial signs of social change. Communities are sorted into top-, mid-, and low-tier communities based on the percentage of quota share (QS) permit owners that live in each community. A higher number of QS permit owners in a place is expected to result in relatively greater benefits to those communities. Questions analyzed include percent of income from fishing, multiple jobs worked, job stability, job satisfaction, standard of living, and how individuals were personally affected. Significant results for TOP-tier communities include increases in working multiple jobs, which may be negative or positive depending on the respondent, and improvements in job satisfaction. LOW-tier communities indicate significant improvements in standard of living. MID-tier communities appear to be in the middle, with no significant changes. Interview data indicate variation between owners, where some can fish their allocations and others need to lease more to fish.