Management & Regulation

Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe is among a group of Northeastern congressional delegates strongly urging the government to increase catch limits for certain species of groundfish. In a meeting on Wednesday with U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and other federal fishing regulators, Snowe said they ensured that the officials heard loud and clear the anger of New England fishermen.

"I think it's critical that we have to have higher catch limits on the Gulf of Maine winter flounder, southern New England winter flounder and George's Bank yellowtail," says Jim Odlin, owner of Atlantic Trawlers in Portland. Odlin says increasing the limits is essential to saving the region's groundfishing industry.

A couple of our permits have got, like, four pounds of yellowtail on it right? So what? Three fish? It would be a shame to shut down all your fishing activity for the summer over three fish," says Glen Libby, president of the Midcoast Fishermen's Association and a member of the New England Fishery Management Council, which manages the resources of the five coastal New England states.

"We believe that the limits that have been set are the appropriate limits right now," says Sean Mahoney, vice-president of the Conservation Law Foundation, a New England-based environmental advocacy group. It's too early, he says, to start demanding an increase in any catch limits at the moment.

Read the Maine Public Broadcasting Network story in full

 

 

The following is taken from a press release:

WASHINGTON – Thirteen members of the House and Senate representing northeastern coastal states met today with Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco to express their unified opposition to new regulations on the fishing industry.

The meeting came in response to a request by the legislators and their colleagues, who on April 21^st issued a strongly-worded letter to Secretary Locke regarding the new regulations.

The regulations would impose a new way of determining how the total allowable annual fish catch is tabulated and divided among members of the fishing industry.  At the same time, it would dramatically reduce the overall amount of different species of fish that can be caught in a single year.  Implementing a new catch shares system while simultaneously slashing overall limits is likely to impose severe economic costs on the fishing industry.

The Members released the following joint statement:

“We would like to express to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke our strong disagreement with the National Marine Fisheries Service scheduled implementation of 2010 catch limits, which would impose sharp reductions from 2009 allocation limits.  We unanimously believe that the catch limits for so-called “choke stocks,” including yellowtail flounder, winter flounder, and pollock must be increased.  In addition, we call on the Administration to provide economic assistance to the fishing industry during this crisis, and to require cooperative research efforts to ensure fair assessments of fish stocks.”

New Bedford, Boston, and Gloucester Auction owners question reports that suggest the first week of New England Fisheries under catch share managment were good.

In a May 11, 2010 report on the first week of landing reports under catch shares, Seafood News reported that offshore boats are thriving under new catch share rules in New England with regional landings up 4% in the first week.

While Seafood News' reporting of the numbers is accurate, the owners of the New Bedford, Boston, and Gloucester Seafood Display Auctions told Saving Seafood that the positive numbers mask the current realities and challenges facing fishermen.

Larry Ciulla of the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction told Saving Seafood that dayboats are not fishing.  He noted that in a typical year, the first week of the fishery brings in 150,000 – 200-000 lbs. of grounfish, but this year only 30,000 lbs. were landed during the first week. He also noted that many vessels went out during the last week in April to use up allocations under the old system, and landed that product during the first week of May.

Richie Canastra of the New Bedford and Boston auctions also said that many vessels went out at the end of April with the specific intention of fisahing under the old rules. He noted that vessels go out at the end of April and come in during early May in order to supply restaurant and market demand for seafood that spikes over Mothers' Day weekend.

Both Mr. Ciulla and Mr. Canastra pointed out that none of the boats that landed during the first week of May had fished entirely under the Sector regime.  All of the landings reported during the first week of May included fish caught in April under the old system. The first landing of fish caught entirely under the new system at the Gloucester auction occurred during the day on May 11.  At the New Bedford Auction, the first vessel landing with product caught entirely under the new system was expected late overnight on May 11-12.

Both Mr. Ciulla and Mr. Canastra indicated that an accurate comparison of data between this year's landings under the new system and last year's landings under the former system cannot be made until a full week has lapsed during which all landings are of catches caught under the new system. 

 

 

 

The fish used to belong to the people, but they increasingly belong to fishermen, nonprofits, and others who have the ability to buy up the resource. This trend toward privatizing the ocean's fish has caused some fishermen to be very creative in order to survive, as evidenced by Captain Cullen's boat. Cullen's vision is similar to that of many folks in Maine: figure out how to anchor the benefit of fishing jobs in rural ports while make more money catching fewer fish. This begs a rethinking of the role of markets in fisheries management. Why can't we also consider the economic benefits to a community and conservation outcomes, as a different kind of market-driven efficiency?

One of the tragedies of fisheries management is that it is so complicated that it alienates the people who should be the most involved. In this column I attempt to explain one way of understanding what is happening.

It is April, and I am boarding a 35-foot lobster boat built by R.P Boat Shop in Steuben, Maine, but I am in Morro Bay, California. Even more odd to me, the fishing vessel Dorado is rigged to jig for groundfish. Roger Cullen captains the Dorado, and is a member of the Central Coast Sustainable Groundfish Association.

Today, market-based fisheries management schemes are termed "catch shares." A few fishermen like catch shares, most are seriously concerned about them, and still others become downright livid upon hearing the words uttered.

Catch shares at the most general level grant individual fishermen pounds of fish that they can catch, sell, lease or trade when and how they like. On the West Coast, the predominant management scheme allots quota to individuals or corporations that can fish or lease their quota as desired. In New England, fishermen can fish their allocation of fish, but only if they cooperate with other fishermen in what are called "sectors." Sectors shift the emphasis of management away from individuals and create a framework for fishermen to work together, something that is more aligned with the culture of fishing communities on the coast of Maine. They are cooperatives (501c5) organizations, where a board of fishermen set the rules for how a larger group of fishermen will fish, and in some cases, where.

In Maine we have three sectors, one based in Stonington, another based in Port Clyde and another based out of Portland. Although these sectors are based in specific communities, they have fishermen participating in them from many different ports. For example, the Port Clyde sector contains about 30 boats under 65 feet that fish out of Maine ports, some with gill-nets and others with otter-trawl gear. The Portland and Stonington based sectors have fishermen from throughout New England. The primary bond for proponents of catch-share schemes nationally is the belief that markets can best manage fisheries.

This transition toward privatizing the ocean's fish has been underway for a long time. It started with the creation of the New England fishing territory. When the 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone was enacted by the U.S. Government in 1976, primarily as a means to exclude foreign fleets, it also raised the prospect of how to count fish and manage fishermen in this territory. A grid was placed over the territory to ease the counting of fish.  Through counting fish biologists could estimate how many groundfish are in the New England region. The science behind the total number of fish in the ocean informs the total allowable catch (TAC) that can be extracted from the territory. You need this type of cap on the total number of fish that can be caught in order to divide up the fish among individual fishermen. Just to be clear, I am not saying that the creation of territory was a deliberate part of a long-term plan to make privatization possible. I am only suggesting that a TAC is one of the components of a management system that is necessary to privatize fish.

 

Read the complete story at The Working Waterfront.

 

 

 

 

 

05/07/2010 – Starting May 1, most of New England’s ground-fishing fleet sailed under a promising new, science-based management plan called sector allocation. It could rebuild fish populations, help fishermen run their businesses more efficiently and profitably, and bolster fishing communities. But the new system depends on collecting and using the right data, in a timely way.

Previously, the region’s ground-fishing fleet — which catches cod, haddock, pollock and similar species — operated under “days at sea” rules that failed to stop overfishing. But last year, the New England Fishery Management Council, which includes commercial and recreational fishermen, industry representatives and government officials, voted to implement the sector plan.

Under the new program, fishermen voluntarily join cooperatives called sectors. Each sector receives its own share of the annual catch for each groundfish species and agrees to stop fishing once the catch limits have been reached. Respecting these rules initiates an end to overfishing, so fish populations can rebuild.

Read the complete story at Pew Charitable Trusts.

 

 

 

 

 

After a similar meeting in Gloucester, New England fishermen met in New Bedford, Massachusetts, on March 8 to discuss the pending shift to a catch share system that many fishermen feel they are being forced to accept.

Some, including boat owner Carlos Raphael of New Bedford, said the low allocations under catch shares will drive 50 percent  of the fishermen out of business in a matter of months.

The shift to an incomplete sector management system and catch shares as been driven by a deadline some say is arbitrary. U.S. Representative Barney Frank called for a moratorium. But, he told the Fishermen’s Voice, the new National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) head, Jane Lubchenco, “is determined to go forward, in spite of the fact that catch shares is just another term for transferable quota, which according to the re-authorized Magnuson Stevens Act (MSA) of 2006, requires a 2/3 majority vote in Congress, that the catch shares plan does not have.”

Read the complete story at Fishermen's Voice.

 

 

 

 

 

It is difficult to avoid ranting about the malevolence and incompetence of the National Marine Fisheries Service, the alleged inflexibility of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, and what I believe to be the illegal imposition of catch shares.

But we should focus on what might do some good in the short run.

Our congressman and senators are meeting with the Secretary of Commerce on Wednesday. The Secretary has the authority to make administrative changes in how NMFS is implementing the Magnuson-Stevens Act, though he cannot amend the Act.

The representatives of Sens. Kerry and Brown asked us how they should advise the Secretary. We need to respond to them clearly and concisely.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

NMFS has issued the following advisory:

Last Saturday, May 1, 2010, marked the beginning of the fishing year, and the effective date of Amendment 16 for the groundfish industry. We expect that industry members may still have a lot of questions about the new regulations.  To help with this transition, NOAA Fisheries Service staff will be available by phone to answer your questions throughout the weekend.

The phone number: (978) 281-9315
Saturday and Sunday, 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Information about the new regulations and sectors management is available at http://www.nero.noaa.gov/sfd/sfdmultisector.html.

 

 

 

 

 

Initial reports on the rollout by the federal government of a restructured groundfishing regulatory system came back all thumbs down, confirming worst fears of catch shares with evidence of job loss, declining landings and over-bureaucratization testified to by angry industry members.

Friday's meeting, which ran for two hours, brought out examples of how the past fishing histories of the permitholders set fishermen up to fail under the new rules.

Almost everyone who spoke identified a species for which he had little or no history, thus leaving the permit with miniscule allocations of one stock.

Richard Burgess, who owns four boats and heads the gillnet sector of about 40 boats, said his biggest boat, a 55 footer landed 6,500 pounds of cod on the first trip out in the new system which began last Saturday, leaving it only 500 pounds of allocated cod for the rest of the year.

"I got zero pounds of blackback flounder. So if I catch one fish, I'm illegal," he said.

 

"We're heading for catastrophic failure on every level," said state Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante, who co-sponsored the debriefing and strategic brainstorming of mostly Gloucester fishermen with Sen. Bruce Tarr and Mayor Carolyn Kirk.

An industry that, for three years of research and development, had been conflicted over converting to the catch shares and sector system of guild- like fishing cooperatives seemed to speak with a single voice for the first time Friday during the meeting, held at City Hall.

"This is an important turning point," said Tarr.

A similar emergency meeting was to be held this afternoon in New Bedford, called by Mayor Scott Lang.

Richie Canastra, co-owner of the Whaling City Seafood Display Auction who was to preside, said he expected a similar vote of no confidence in the new federal regulatory system there.

Listening and taking notes were representatives of U.S. Sens. John Kerry and Scott Brown and Congressman John Tierney. But what the industry and its allies in Congress might be able to do to relieve the hardships was uncertain.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

To the editor:

With Amendment 16 protecting neither resource nor the fleet in the New England fishery, we have, I believe, an urgent need to amend the amendment.

Eco-system-based fisheries management" requires a stable" three-legged stool" model of sustainability, with:

-Sustainable resource management based on scientific stock-assessment and emerging eco-system knowledge,

-Sustainable fleet structure based on low-carbon vessel-economics and operational practices,

-Sustainable shore-side infrastructure/fishing communities matching fleet structure and operations — with harvesting of the resource home-ported in harbors with fisheries-supporting infrastructure.

Read the complete letter to the editor at The Gloucester Daily Times.