SavingSeaFood - Industry interests balk at adding catch shares for monkfish

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Industry interests balk at adding catch shares for monkfish

The monkfish fishery is in good shape, said UMass Dartmouth School of Marine and Science Technology fishery biologist David Martins, who conducts cooperative fisheries research with the New Bedford fleet. "What's the impetus for this?" he asked.

While the New England Fishery Management Council considers catch shares as a means to improve the economic performance of a fishery, that is not always the case, said boat owner Carlos Rafael.

"I bought yellowtail quota for 90 cents and I sold the fish for 80 cents in the auction yesterday," he said. "If we know catch shares aren't working very well, why do we want to go down the wrong path with monkfish? This will end up exactly like the groundfish, with 25 percent survivors and the rest losers."

Rafael maintained that sectors have crippled many small boat owners.

"Say a guy has 20,000 pounds of codfish and he has to buy another 20,000 at 85 cents a pound. It's costing him an average 42½ cents just to go out fishing. I have a million pounds of cod and if I need to buy 150,000 more I don't care because it's peanuts for me. If you got a lot of quota you can average. But these little guys have no money to buy quota."

Read the complete story from The Standard Times.

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