"We don’t want to see this policy wipe out communities," Monica Medina, an emissary from the federal administrator for fisheries, said. "This policy is not intended to industrialize or change the fundamental nature of the fisheries or the communities. Hopefully, if we can get through the design and implementation, we can get to better times. We don’t want this policy to be harmful. Catch shares", Medina explained, "means potentially harder times ahead before we get to the better times."
For the survivors in a radical catch share rationalization, the prize is a solid income in a stabilized industry with fewer boats.
"There is big divide sometimes between Washington and the rest of the country," Medina said. "New England is never far from our mind. We want to create environment you need. We hope there won’t be bumps in the road, but we know there will be will."
The existing system of ever-more draconian effort controls — such as limiting fishermen’s access areas and days at sea — satisfied almost nobody and left the fleet, already about half the size of a decade ago, working on a handful of days at sea with leasing from dormant permits required for survival.
Tom Ancona, a West Coast fisherman who has been involved in the long conversion of the ground fishery to catch share market principles, reported that the Pacific transition, which has been underway for nearly seven years, was aided by a decision to take 50 percent of the quota of defunct boats, and redistribute it on a per capita basis to give even marginal participants in the privatized system enough capacity to have a chance of surviving. A buyout, however, was cited as an essential element to the seven-year effort of the Pacific Fishery Management Council to bring catch shares to its ground fishery, and has been a long sought salve for the fast-shrinking fleet of boats fishing the Gulf of Maine by Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine.
Monica Medina deflected a direct question about the willingness of the Obama administration to help finance a buyout program that would fuel a radical downsizing of the fleet.
Maggie Raymond, executive director of the Associated Fisheries of Maine, said she believes the conservative allocation made for the onset of catch share sector fishing next summer would ensure widespread failure of the system.
Vito Calomo, a former Gloucester fisherman and now a member of the Massachusetts Fishery Recovery Commission, told Medina any successful program required a level of trust that does not exist today between the industry and its regulators.