Heading: Market Venture: Trading of Personal Fishing Permits

NOAA Fisheries has launched a new platform within the Southeast Gulf Catch Shares online system, designed to facilitate the buying and selling of Individual Fishing Quotas (IFQ) for red snapper, grouper, and tilefish species. This initiative aims to increase market transparency and provide current price information to participants before making transactions.

The IFQ Marketplace is accessible only to IFQ participants who are logged into their shareholder account. To use the marketplace, fishermen can navigate to the Allocation or Shares menu, where they can create a post using drop-down boxes to select the share category, indicate whether they wish to buy or sell IFQ privileges, and choose the quota type (shares or allocation).

If a poster selects Allocation, they must enter the pounds available or wishing to be purchased, followed by the price per pound. On the other hand, if they choose Shares, they will enter the share percentage available or being offered for purchase. The system will generate the equivalent pounds for that share percentage at the time.

The IFQ Marketplace was developed based on suggestions from fishermen, with NOAA Fisheries incorporating additional suggestions from focus group meetings to ensure its effectiveness. To maintain current information, any post older than 30 days on the IFQ Marketplace is automatically deleted.

Clicking on the Contact button will display information provided by the poster. It is important to note that participants should only contact the poster as they have requested, and mention they saw the advertisement on the IFQ Marketplace. There is no cost for creating a post on the IFQ Marketplace.

NOAA Fisheries has also created the "Allocation Transfers Rolling Average" page and "Ex-Vessel Rolling Average" pages to increase market information transparency. In late 2024, they released allocation and ex-vessel price rolling average views on the IFQ Marketplace, providing participants with current price information before making transactions.

NOAA Fisheries is committed to continued improvement of the Gulf IFQ programs and uses stakeholder feedback to do so. The creation of the IFQ Marketplace is a testament to their dedication to enhancing the fishing industry in the Southeast Gulf region.