Increased restrictions on commercial fishing have failed to help many marine fish populations grow, so regulators are again considering ways to reduce what is caught, this time by buying back permits – and the boats that go with them. Instead of another costly attempt to control how many fishermen fish, regulators should approach the problem more directly by restricting how much fish can be caught. Quotas are unpopular, but they are likely to be more effective than continually reducing the amount of time fishermen can spend at sea, closing large swaths of the ocean to angling or buying and destroying fishing boats.

The current buyout proposal is part of a voluntary effort, approved by New England fishermen, to develop a voluntary capacity reduction plan. The proposal calls for the federal government to loan the fishery $100 million to buy fishing privileges. The money would be repaid through a fee, of no more than 4 percent, to be assessed on the market value of the catch for up to 30 years. Fishermen who “sell” their fishing permits would have to destroy their boats. Many Maine fishermen are skeptical of the proposal.

There have been two groundfish buyouts in New England since 1995. In the first, 79 vessels were removed from the fishery. But the Government Accountability Office found that 62 previously inactive vessels began catching groundfish after the buyback. At a cost of $25 million, that means nearly $1.5 million was spent for each of the 17 vessels that were permanently removed from the fleet.

Worse, federal regulators continue to report many species, such as cod and flounder, remain below target population levels. As a result, the number of fishing days has been cut, to just 27 days a year in part of the Gulf of Maine, and some parts of the ocean are off-limits to fishing. As a result, revenues from groundfishing has dropped by nearly a third since 2001.

Rather than indirectly limiting the catch, regulators need to address the problem head-on by limiting how much can be caught. This catch limit could then be divided up among fishermen or communities. Such a system was included in the most recent round of federal fishery regulations passed by Congress, but it must be approved by two-thirds of fishermen to be implemented in New England.

Quotas are working well in other parts of the country and world. Using them here, when other management measures have failed, is a logical step in limiting the number of fish that are caught so more remain in the ocean to grow and reproduce, allowing fishermen to catch more in the long term.