New federal regulations that take effect May first will fundamentally change fishing in New Hampshire and the rest of New England. The rules are designed to rebuild depleted stocks of groundfish, such as cod and flounder. But fishermen say the new management policy hits New Hampshire fishermen particularly hard, and could put half the state's fishing boats out of business. New Hampshire Public Radio's Amy Quinton reports.
Dozens of New Hampshire fisherman packed into a small conference room recently in Portsmouth. They came to hear details about new groundfish rules set by the New England Fishery Management Council.
Those rules, for the first time, place a cap on the amount of groundfish that fisherman can catch off New England. Mark Grant, with the National Marine Fisheries Service, says the goal is to end overfishing and rebuild 13 of 19 protected fish species. "And so that reduction in itself is a huge problem, if you reduce the amount of fish people can catch either everyone makes less money, or less people go fishing," he says.
But there's an even bigger change under the new regulations. Fisherman can now join groups, called sectors, and each member of the sector shares the available catch. Those who opt out of those sectors face a decrease in the number of days they can fish, in how much they can catch per trip, and tighter restrictions on where they can fish.
Listen to the audio from the Maine Public Broadcasting Network.