Vito Giacalone, policy director, and Richie Canastra, board member and treasurer of the Northeast Seafood Coalition have released the following statement to address questions have arisen from a number of parties as to the nature of the agreement presented at the Portsmouth, New Hampshire New England Fisheries Management Council meeting between ground fishermen and scallopers on the yellowtail flounder allocations.
At the meeting, Mr. Giacalone presented the position of the Northeast Seafood Coalition.
According to Mr. Giacalone and Mr. Canastra, the “understanding” was nothing more than a policy decision, not a "deal" but rather an "understanding", and did not involve financial compensation.
Questions have arisen from a number of parties as to the nature of “the deal” presented at the Portsmouth, New Hampshire council meeting between ground fishermen and scallopers on the yellowtail flounder issue.
Accordingly, we are taking this opportunity to present the facts.
The most frequently asked question is this: What were the details of the scallop and groundfish fisheries’ understanding with regard to Framework 21 and yellowtail flounder allocations between the two fisheries?
This question came up at the Joint Groundfish/Scallop Oversight Committee meeting a few weeks ago. It may come up again at this week’s full Council meeting.
The answer is simple. NO compensation … None.
The groundfishermen’s action was a total leap of faith and a gesture of solidarity. Purely and simply, the political, economic and scientific realities made the decision to support the scallopers a no-brainer.
The “understanding” was nothing more than a policy decision that resulted from some very, very simple facts.
• The port of New Bedford’s fishing infrastructure and local economy are heavily dependent upon its scallop fishery.
• Northeast Fisheries Sectors in New Bedford hold more than of 70% of the commercial Annual Catch Limits (ACL) for Georges Bank yellowtail flounder.
• New Bedford’s political leaders stuck their necks out on this issue and a backlash from New Bedford groundfish interests over measly scraps of yellowtail seemed worth avoiding.
• The Northeast Seafood Coalition recognized one of the potential benefits of sectors is the ability to internally reconcile policy differences and to take positions that will be beneficial to the greater good — without necessarily having to speak to every individual impacted. This is possible because there are sufficient fish within the group of sectors to make whole those who disagree and allow those who agree to use their fish to cover a voluntary loss. THIS WAS OUR FALLBACK POSITION IN THE EVENT PARTICIPANTS BECAME UPSET AFTER HEARING WE SUPPORTED THIS. BUT THIS DID NOT HAPPEN SO NOTHING WAS DONE TO REARRANGE FISH ALLOCATIONS INSIDE OUR SECTORS.
• We spoke with our New Bedford sectors and explained the unique circumstance and also made clear the fact that there is no way to trade the fish or be compensated for the fish. This was not an effort aimed at financial gain, but rather it was an opportunity to show solidarity. We elected to show the scallop fleet that the ground fishermen recognized the huge potential loss to the scallop fishery relative to the relatively insignificant amount of yellowtail lost if the losses were spread among permit holders.
• New Bedford groundfish fishermen chose to take our advice and prevent the NEFMC from using groundfish sector yellowtail loss as THE excuse for not shifting the one-year allocation of 80k pounds of yellowtail.
• And Vito Giacalone stated at the microphone in Portsmouth, NH, the Yellowtail fishery has been destroyed by management and the application of US law, which is causing us to fish at barely 20% of the Allowable Biological Catch (ABC). That is the problem, not the scallop fishery.
• We spoke with enough key scallop people to let them know we intended to support them. We made clear that this was a gesture of solidarity, and expressed our intent to work together in the future to improve data and science with regards to stocks important to both fisheries. Through improved science and sensible management policies there can be enough allocation to satisfy the scallop by catch without creating MARKETS that pretend to be fixing things.
• We did not speak with a broad enough range of either scallopers OR ground fishermen to morally or ethically consider any kind of compensation. The action was taken in good faith that someday the favor will be returned in the form of working together.
That is it. Contrary to what folks would like to believe, this was simply a policy position. It kept New Bedford from being divided while their political leadership was fighting for the scallopers, and it sent a message to regulators that forcing fishermen to fight over token scraps at the 11th hour, after real opportunities to improve the ACL — before a showdown scenario — was not a situation we were prepared to tolerate.
People endorse policy decisions with impact on the bottom lines of others every day without speaking to every single permit holder. In fact, decisions often are made that are against what the majority of fishermen would like to see. Instead, decisions are often based upon what the influential few prefer. Our “understanding” was far more inclusive and reflective of the wishes of those who had the highest stake in the yellowtail fishery than many, many decisions made in the past.
We place our credibility upon these statements.
Most sincerely,
Vito Giacalone and Richie Canastra