What is a key benefit of catch shares or IFQs in PFMC management?

• A. They increase total allowable catch without considering bycatch.
• B. They allocate quotas uniformly to all vessels.
• C. They allocate quotas to individuals or entities, enabling more efficient harvest control and potentially reducing bycatch.
• D. They eliminate the need for monitoring and enforcement.

Answer: (C)

Catch shares, or individual fishing quotas, allocate a specific portion of the total allowable catch to individual fishers or fishing entities. This creates a rights-based system where each holder has a stake in staying within their allotted share, which supports more controllable and predictable harvests. The ownership motivation encourages efficiency and reduces waste, because discarding fish or chasing bycatch directly affects the value of what a person or company can harvest in the long run. Tradable quotas help align effort with stock management by allowing market adjustments to concentrate fishing where it’s most efficient, while keeping total catches within the science-based limit. These features collectively make allocating quotas to individuals or entities a key benefit.

The other choices miss the mark because the total catch limit is science-based and not automatically increased by catch shares, quotas are not given uniformly to all vessels, and monitoring and enforcement remain essential rather than being eliminated.