Commercial Fisheries: Effectiveness of Fishing Buyback Programs Can Be Improved Page: 4 of 8
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sources. About $140 million (87 percent) of these costs are for buybacks implemented
since 1995, an indication of the increasing use of buybacks. The remaining $20 million
were incurred during the 1970s and 1980s for programs to assist fishermen in the
Northwest salmon industry.
The features, costs, and objectives of the buybacks vary.
* The most costly buyback, involving Bering Sea pollock, began in 1998 under the
authority of the American Fisheries Act of that year. The act required NMFS to
purchase 9 of 30 factory trawlers2 working in the fishery and their associated fishing
permits. The total cost of the buyback was $90.2 million, with $15.2 million from
federally appropriated funds and the remaining $75 million from a federal loan to
Alaskan pollock fishermen to buy large fishing vessels. The loan is repayable over 30
years based on a fee tied to the amount of pollock caught by those left in the fishery.
* The next most expensive buyback, involving New England groundfish, took place in
two phases between June 1995 and May 1998 under the authority of the Emergency
Supplemental Appropriations Act of 1994 and the Interjurisdictional Fisheries Act.
NMFS spent $24.4 million to remove 79 fishing vessels, the fishing permits that
allowed these vessels to catch groundfish, and all other federal fishing permits
associated with these vessels. NMFS also required that the vessels it purchased be
scrapped, sunk, or transferred to activities other than fishing.
* The longest running buyback effort began in 1976 and involves five separate
programs since 1976 for reducing the number of salmon fishing vessels and fishing
permits in the Northwest. Three of the programs, costing a total of $20.5 million,
mostly in federal funds, were in effect between 1976 and 1986 under the
Interjurisdictional Fisheries Act. The remaining two programs, costing a total of $14
million, were implemented from 1995 through 1998 under this act and the Magnuson-
2A factory trawler catches fish by dragging a large net through the water and then processes the fish
onboard.GAO-01-699T
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United States. General Accounting Office. Commercial Fisheries: Effectiveness of Fishing Buyback Programs Can Be Improved, text, May 10, 2001; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc289659/m1/4/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.