Taxes and Quotas
We debated taxes/fees vs quotas. The general decision is that both methods are needed. We believe that we can use quotas to control the supply of fish, while we can use fees and taxes to control the demand for fish.
Fees and Taxes:
- We want to charge taxes for non-sustainably caught fish. We want the tax to be similar to current taxes for alcohol or gasoline--it will be an excise tax.
- The tax will need to be highly visible. There needs to be something like a big red sticker near taxed fish that say something like "this is not sustainable and is subject to a tax" or something like that.
- The money would be used by the government to fund the conservation efforts of other components of our solution
- We will use today's techniques to get the tax passed (lobbyists, environmental pressure).
- We will need to have an example of previous taxes--the fact that they have been passed, and how they helped.
Quotas:
- We need quotas.
- We want separate limits for different stocks
- I think that there was some more stuff.
Public Outreach (Education)
- encourage environmental curricula in schools
- TV ads, PSAs, children's shows
- the AdCouncil is running Disney-sponsored Little mermaid commercials targeting kids; the goal of the campaign has something to do with the oceans
- More detail about AdCouncil in Alex's email
- Use MPAs as places for "exotic" sport fishing
- We will need to get some data about this
This is not a final proposal, just the thoughts of the group.