An Analysis of the Pacific Groundfish Trawl Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) Quota Pound (QP) Market Through 2019

This report describes the structure of the quota pound (QP) market and QP pricing through 2019. QP transfers made in the years 2011 through 2019 are analyzed. The report updates prior published analyses. The role of an efficient QP market is at least threefold (Holland 2016): 1) It allocates QP to its highest value use. 2) It influences behavior, e.g., incentivizing individuals to avoid constraining species. 3) It provides information to fishing businesses, fishery managers, and other stakeholders to support business planning and policy decisions. As this analysis shows, the forms of compensation used in interfirm QP transactions are quite diverse, and transfers are not dominated by cash sales with individual species prices. Rather, barter and contractual arrangements, including risk pools, are common; multispecies trades are also common. The analysis in this report suggests that the QP market for Pacific groundfish individual fishing quotas (IFQ) may not have been operating efficiently, particularly for species that are caught incidentally and are potentially constraining for some individuals; there are, however, fewer of those now, since most overfished stocks have rebuilt. 2020 NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) NWFSC (Northwest Fisheries Science Center) Submitted https://doi.org/10.25923/sxdw-kb49 Public Domain 1863