Hundreds of Fishermen to Rally in Gloucester

Rally organizers point out that at this time of national economic distress, it is imperative that NOAA joins the White House in focusing on economic recovery.  It is time that NOAA obeys the national fisheries law that instructs it to “minimize adverse economic impacts on [fishing] communities.”

The rally has four goals: [1] to demand flexibility in rebuilding timelines, and to support efforts in Congress to change unrealistic regulations; [2] to demand better management and greater professionalism from NOAA Fisheries; [3] to demand an independent economic analysis of the affects of planned fisheries regulations before they are enacted; and [4] to mitigate the effect of anticipated negative economic consequences with programs such as credit availability and buy-backs when government policy is expected to cause economic hardship; e.g. an expected reduction in the number of vessels and businesses.

Fifteen years of increasingly severe catch limits on cod, flounder and other groundfish are paying dividends off the New England coast. Rally organizers say that although the public has been fed a diet of gloom-and-doom stories about fish, stocks are making great strides. It is time, they say, that management plans reflected this.

“The fishermen have the evidence on their side,” said Jerry Fraser, editor of the trade journal National Fisherman and a longtime industry observer.  “For years they have been told that someday their sacrifices would pay off, yet now that stocks are recovering the government is telling them that tomorrow never comes.”

Rally organizers say that both the law and the management are flawed and need immediate attention.  They point to recent management failures such as NOAA’s inability to properly manage the scallop observer set-aside program[1][2].

Anticipated speakers include:
Allyson Jordan (ME, Owner Operator–Gloucester Take Out)
Amanda Odlin (ME, Husband Operator/Owner–Boston Take Out)
Joel Hovanesian (RI, Owner/operator–Point Judith)
Eric Anderson (NH, Owner/Operator–Portsmouth)
Jim Lovgren (NJ, Owner/Operator/former Mid-Atlantic Council member)
Richard Grachek (RI, Owner/Operator–Pt. Judith I think)
Mary Beth DePoutiloff  (Provincetown–owner/operator)
Tina Jackson & Brian Loftes (RI—Pt Judith—AAFC and Owner/operators)
Stephen Ouellette (Gloucester, Ma–Proctor of Admiralty, Esq.)
David Lincoln  (Gloucester, Ma—Coastal Geologist)

For further information on the four goals of the rally, please see the following addenda.

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Unrealistic laws and regulations
Current federal law mandates that regional fisheries councils take action to end overfishing when it occurs within two years, and that troubled fish stocks are rebuilt within 10 years. Although the Magnuson-Stevens Act (Sec. 304) provides exceptions to the ten-year mandate for “biology” and “environmental conditions” NOAA Fisheries’ interpretation of the existing law has rarely permitted the exceptions intended by Congress.

“Mother Nature is not a constituent of the United States Government,” said rally organizer Amanda Odlin.  “We don’t object to ending overfishing within two years – no one cares more about the health of the fisheries than fishermen.  We object to the government placing artificial deadlines on nature.”

Last March, Members of Congress introduced legislation to amend Magnuson-Stevens to make clear Congressional intent to provide flexibility in rebuilding saying, “Current law can sometimes impose unduly strict timelines for rebuilding depleted fisheries.”

Rally organizers support the bipartisan efforts of Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY), Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), Walter Jones (R-NC), Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ), and John Adler (D-NJ) and bill co-sponsors to amend the 2006 reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act with the Flexibility in Rebuilding American Fisheries Act of 2009.

The congressional co-sponsors said the “10-year deadline is arbitrary, may have no basis in science, may require stocks to be rebuilt to unprecedented levels, and must be met without regard to the impact it will have on recreational and commercial fishermen, related industries, and the communities whose economic future depends on harvesting the fish.”

[3], Maine Senator Olympia Snowe observed, “we need to preserve the fish and the fishing stock and we also need to preserve the community.” Regarding the agency’s relationship with the industry, Senator Snowe said, “I’ve never seen it so polarizing.”

In her response, Dr. Lubchenco observed that the situation between NOAA and the New England fishing community had become “a seriously dysfunctional relationship” and she pledged to “begin to rebuild the trust” including trust in “diverse points of view”.  She noted that polarization had “poisoned all of the discussions” and supported collaborative research efforts where “scientists and fishermen together are taking the data that they can both believe in and both rely upon…to serve as a basis for having a reasonable discussion.”

Event organizers note that there have been no significant organizational changes at NOAA Fisheries Gloucester despite Dr. Lubchenco’s pledge. An organizational audit and overhaul of the agency is needed and should be begun right away.

NOAA Fisheries’ history of management failures continues.  Two recent examples are the scallop set aside program and computational errors in the skate complex.

Because NOAA failed to properly manage fees paid by industry on all scallop landings, funds for the scallop observer set aside program ran out halfway through the current fishing year.  Instead of owning up to this error and finding NOAA funds to continue the program, NOAA chose to hide behind regulations and force vessels to pay individually for observer coverage that have already paid for collectively through the industry-funded set-aside.

In another instance, an error that can only be characterized as a remarkably stupid mistake may still cost hundreds of jobs in New England.  As a result of including unavailable data as "zero" rather than "missing", the Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) of the New England Fishery Management Council set the 2010-2011 Acceptable Biological Catch (ABC) recommendation for the skate fishery 30% too low.  After the blunder was found, the revised recommendation increases the ABC by 28.6%, from 23,826 mt. to 30,643 mt.

Although this error was caught, the proposed trip limits on skate have still not been changed to reflect the recommended increase in allowable catch.

These are merely two examples of the poor management and bureaucratic sloppiness that have led to anger and distrust of the government by industry members.

We ask Dr. Lubchenco to take immediate, profound steps to end the dysfunction and polarization and move toward the “climate of trust” she pledged to do all in her power to achieve.

We also ask for Dr. Lubchenco’s continued support for more collaborative research between fishermen and scientists.  We have seen the success of such an effort in the scallop industry as a result of the award-winning work of UMass/SMAST[4], and ask for Dr. Lubchenco’s concrete support of these types of efforts that she praised in her confirmation hearing.

 
Our government must care about people as well as fish

The rally will also call attention to National Standard Eight of the Magnuson-Stevens law, which says that regulators are to “take into account the importance of fishery resources to fishing communities” and “minimize adverse economic impacts on such communities.”

“NOAA has a lot of numbers about fish, but not about people,” said Tina Jackson of the American Alliance of Fishermen and their Communities “The law says NOAA is to provide for the sustained participation of fishing communities.  They can’t be obeying that law if they have only studied what their regulations do to fish and not to people.”

The New England fisheries are scheduled to move to a “catch share” management system next spring, under which individual fishers will own rights to catch fish. They can trade or sell these rights, which is intended to make fishing more efficient and provide a market-based incentive not to overfish.

Dr. Jane Lubchenco, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has stated that "a significant fraction of the vessels will need to be removed to make the fishery sustainable and profitable," according to NOAA spokesman Scott Smullen. He continued, "she thinks capacity reduction is necessary."[5]

Rally participants demand independent credible and complete economic impact analyses of the anticipated effects of the transition to Catch Share management against a baseline of continued days-at-sea management.  Too often, NOAA economic analyses have only looked at lost revenue by vessel owners.  An independent economic analysis must be undertaken. It must look at not only the effect on vessel owners but also on fishermen, shore-side businesses, and employment in coastal communities, and examine the loss of multiplier effects throughout local economies.

 
The government must help the people it knows its policies will hurt

The rally will also demand that the Federal government provide resources to assist owners, employees, and others in fishing communities who are hurt by capacity reduction and other negative economic fallout of the move to catch shares. While NOAA has offered aid to assist in the transition to catch shares, including assistance for cooperative research, and sector implementation — which rally organizers applaud — direct aid for those expected to be hurt by the transition or removed from the industry must also be provided.

Making credit available to owners and businesses could provide this.  Fishermen are not looking for a handout—they are looking for a hand up.  Fishermen need access to credit to get through this transition.  With banks reluctant to lend after the global financial crisis, they need access to government loans to help build their businesses.

For some, even access to credit may not be enough, and a buy-back program is warranted to compensate owners of vessels that become part of the ‘capacity reduction” that NOAA has stated it anticipates.  Finally, economic assistance must be made available to shore side businesses and employees who experience economic hardship and dislocation.

 
Contact:
Amanda Odlin
aodlin@maine.rr.com
202-885-1335