May 23, 2012 – Since the introduction of the catch share system to manage groundfish stocks, each fisherman is given a fixed amount of fish to catch and most active fishermen have to buy or lease additional quota from other fishermen to stay in business.
In effect, Mirarchi now has to buy fish to go fishing.
"It's like working in quicksand because the price of quota is incredibly volatile," he said. Quota bought at the start of the fishing year can lose its value if the price of a particular stock tanks.
But these days Mirarchi is getting some business help from an unlikely source. The Environmental Defense Fund has provided him with a business consultant along with the analytical tools he needs to determine how much he should pay for the quota he needs to stay on the water.
The program identified what he can expect to get for fish in a given year and what he can afford to pay for quota.
"It's not a Ouija board, but it's been a huge help," he said. More importantly, after years of just fishing, he now views his boat as a business.
"All businesses have to control costs," he said.
EDF, along with other environmental groups like the Conservation Law Foundation, has been viewed with suspicion by many in the fishing industry for its advocacy of catch shares as a management system. But the organization is working to change the perception of its motives, according to Emilie Litsinger, EDF's groundfish project manager.
"We care about the fish but we also care about the fishermen," she said. "We want them to succeed so we hired business consultants to look at the problems facing fishermen like Frank and to help them, not only with prices, but also to develop new marketing initiatives."
EDF is also working with two fishermen in Point Judith, R.I., Litsinger said, and is open to working with fishermen in New Bedford.
Knowing when to buy quota and how much to pay for it had complicated his life enormously, Mirarchi said. "If you don't know what you're doing you can lose money by going fishing," he said. That uncertainty was compounded by daily fluctuation in the prices fishermen receive for their catch at the dock, he said.
Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard Times.