Aaron Dority is the Downeast Groundfish Initiative Director. He organized and now manages the Northeast Coastal Communities Sector, a federally-approved organization of fishermen who are responsible for managing the catch shares, or the quota of fish, to which they have rights.
Our sector is the Northeast Coastal Communities Sector, we have thirty members as of May 1 in 2011, and we have eighteen members this year. We’re split between Maine and Massachusetts. They’re almost exclusively small boat fishermen, almost exclusively hook fishermen, although we do have a couple of members that might switch over to gill net for part of the year and we have one member in Martha’s Vineyard who ís a dragger. The plight that our fishermen face now is similar to a lot of people in the fleet. They just don't have enough allocation to be able to make a living ground fishing they way that they would like to.
It’s a difficult choice in the beginning of the year. You’ve got to look at your allocation. Compared to the price does it make more sense for me to fish this, does it make more sense for me to lease this? Well, the mission that we have for our sector is for owner/operator fishermen to be able to have an opportunity to go ground fishing, and to fish other fisheries – whether its lobster, scallop, or others.
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