September 13, 2015 — SEABROOK, N.H. — New Hampshire’s commercial fishing industry could vanish soon, industry members said, as the state’s last nine active boat operators face what they call new back-breaking costs imposed by the federal government.
Commercial fishermen will meet Monday at 4:30 p.m. with U.S. Rep. Frank Guinta, R-N.H., at Yankee Fisherman’s Cooperative in Seabrook to discuss the new costs, which pay for regulatory observers.
David Goethel, a Hampton-based fisherman, said New Hampshire’s congressional delegation is the industry’s last hope to get federal regulators off its back.
Guinta, U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., each expressed concern for the New Hampshire fishing industry as a result of the regulations in the last year.
“The only leverage we have is Congress,” Goethel said.
Regulations have become more stringent in recent years to help Gulf of Maine cod stocks bounce back from what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association called dangerously low numbers. Goethel said the regulations reduced the amount of allowable catch for commercial fishermen by 95 percent over the last four years.
Half the New Hampshire fishermen became inactive this summer because of the regulations, said Dan Salerno, sector manager for fishermen on the New Hampshire coastline. Fishing vessels are divided into sectors by NOAA to keep track of regulations. New Hampshire fishermen fall into Sector 11.
But the new costs scheduled to begin Nov. 1, require fishermen to pay hundreds of dollars a day for 24 percent of fishermen’s days at sea for observers to monitor them while they work. Up until this point, NOAA covered the cost, paying an average of $710 a day for at-sea monitoring, but this year NOAA’s Greater Atlantic Regional Administrator John Bullard announced the cost would be picked up by the industry.
Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times