DANVERS — New England's Fishery Management Council Wednesday decided to attempt an after-the-fact tweaking of the groundfish catch share/sector system to prevent "excessive" control and "over consolidation" of the nation's newest commodities market in wild protein stocks.
But questions about when, how or even if to proceed that emerged in committee and during debate by the full council meeting here left no clear hint of what the effort might produce — if anything.
Some industry forces, representing big off-shore boats based in Maine, have cautioned against actions that could serve to redistribute equity in the fishery.
The action was unanimous, but came following a 14-3 vote against holding off the start of the initiative until November.
The decision came a week after a study of the full first year of catch share fishing by quasi voluntary business cooperatives known as sectors, but the anti-monopoly initiative has been working its way toward the public since last year.
Published by the NOAA science center in Woods Hole, the report confirmed anecdotal reports that many years of consolidation of the fleet, based primary in Gloucester and New Bedford, accelerated in 2010 after the fishery was reorganized to encourage buying and selling of permits under the new catch share management system and trading of ultra low allocations.
Read the complete story by Richard Gaines in The Gloucester Times