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Quota Allocation Policies in U.S. Federal Fisheries Management and Implications for Climate Resilience

Christopher M. Free,Zoë J. Kitchel,Matthew Seeley,Ally Shields

Published 2025 in Fish and Fisheries

ABSTRACT

Quota allocation, which divides fishing catch or effort between regions, sectors, subsectors, individuals, and/or seasons, is one of the most important and contentious processes in fisheries management. Quota allocation policies often aim to advance fairness and equity goals by preserving levels of historical participation and access. However, this reliance on historical patterns makes allocation policies vulnerable to climate change, which is shifting the accessibility of marine resources among historical and new participants. Despite this, there is little guidance on best practices for adapting allocation policies to climate change. In the United States, regional flexibility to design locally relevant allocation policies has innovated a diversity of approaches that can be studied for their climate vulnerability and/or adaptivity. Here, we conduct a systematic review of allocation policies used in U.S. federal fisheries (491 stocks, 42 management plans, 8 regions) and a brief review of allocation policies in international fisheries, which we use to identify best practices for climate‐adaptive quota allocation. We find that allocation policies are used to manage 49% of federally managed stocks. Although most policies are based on historical catch, many include features that promote climate adaptiveness, including the ability to transfer quota between states, sectors, or individuals; adjustment of allocations on the basis of current resource distribution or abundance; set aside of quota to support research and experimentation; and gradual phase‐in of policy changes. Ultimately, we provide eight globally transferable recommendations for improving the ability of allocation policies to advance their fairness and equity goals under climate change.

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