A fisherman who sold permits to pay fines, a fisherman who mortgaged his house to buy permits then found their value gutted by lack of history, and a fisherman who sees an up side for smaller operators discuss the new rules.
"They get all the fishermen out of business and there will be no fishermen on George’s Bank, then they can drill all the oil they want out there because there is going to be nobody in their way. You know, it isn’t the last fishermen standing, it’s the last oil well drilled."
— Bill Lee of Rockport, Massachusetts
"There is a lot of criticism of sectors, but it’s too soon to throw them out. By the end of the summer we may find we are doing better. Someone with 100 days at sea, who is catching a lot of fish, is used to the volume. But for someone with 39 days, the sector plan looks better because you have more time to catch your quota. If you’re careful with the choke stocks it may be better when the other factors are figured in.
With days at sea I went out and ran the boat constantly to not waste time. The fuel bills were high, so was wear and tear on the boat. Weather was a bigger problem under days at sea. You would go out in bad weather not to waste the days, the opportunity. With sectors we have the same opportunity with flexibility on when we go.
We are also developing markets for groundfish here. The new gear that’s been developed is much more selective. It dramatically reduces by-catch and is easier to tow, which lowered fuel consumption 12%.
In places like Gloucester and New Bedford where there are lots of fish, sectors with the allocations they got are not going to be the same.”
— Glen Libby of Port Clyde, Maine
"They told me that if you want to survive, under that new amendment (Days at Sea) you go buy permits and as long as the baselines fit, you could lease the days to ourselves. So that’s what I did. I went out and bought two permits for $300,000, put my house up for them, and I thought we were doing what they told us to do. Then all of a sudden, they change the rules on us. They changed the currency from days at sea to quota, and because those permits, even though they qualified and they had the full days at sea, we didn’t have much history on them, so we got screwed.
— Joe Orlando of Gloucester, Massachusetts
Read the complete editorial at Fishermen's Voice.