The Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen's Association has received substantial support from various environmental groups, including $2.6 million from the Pew Environment Group since 1999 and $538,000 from The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation last year to support the implementation of sectors. CEO John Pappalardo said such groups don't set the Hook's agenda, they agree with it.
The Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen's Association represents fisherman who use hooks or stationary nets and was an early backer of the cooperatives, called sectors, which are the foundation of current New England fishery management. The Hook helped Russo and other fishermen create one of the first sectors in 2004.
Others in the fishing industry consider the sector system a disaster that's ruining fishing businesses. But the Hook defends the change as the best way to keep fishermen solvent while species rebound. Environmental groups who agree have given it praise and money. To some fishermen, that's like allying with anti-fishing enemies.
"The hook fishermen don't mean anything to me personally, and I have nothing personally against them, except that they're all sell-outs," said Dick Grachek, who owns a boat that fishes out of Point Judith, R.I.
A lawsuit led by New England's two biggest fishing ports, Gloucester and New Bedford, seeks to overturn the new rules, and also takes on the sector the Hook helped create, charging it received "preferential treatment" with catch allotments.
Steve Ouellette, an attorney for the ports, says the hook association has outsized influence because of the environmentalists' money and the fact their chief executive, John Pappalardo, chairs a regional body that devises fishery rules, the New England Fishery Management Council.
Ouellette considers the Hook is an anti-industry environmental group in disguise, mainly representing fishermen who barely fish or rarely even practice the more benign hook fishing that attracts environmentalists.
Critics say the allotments were unfairly decided. There's resentment because the sector the Hook helped create got to keep a higher cod allocation given before the other sectors were created.
"They got cod that they couldn't possibly catch, and then they sold (most) of that allocation," said Brian Rothschild, a fisheries scientist at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth.
Pappalardo said suddenly changing the allocation would have set a disruptive precedent, causing uncertainty for fishermen who rely on knowing how much they'll be able to catch.
Eric Brazer, manager of Russo's sector, said the group has landed 51 percent of its catch with hooks this year. More are now using stationary nets mainly because their hooks are often stripped clean by an overpopulation of dogfish or skate before they can catch cod. If they can't catch the cod allocation, trading it to sectors that can use it makes sense, he said.
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