Still reeling from new federal regulations that will cut fishermen’s days at sea and cost the region’s fishing industry $17.4 million a year, local fishermen are seeking to form cooperatives that they hope would help them catch their annual allotted quota more efficiently.
"Our responsibility is for fishing communities to survive," said Vito Giacalone, president of the Gloucester Fishing Community Preservation Fund. Giacalone, a longtime fishing advocate and fisherman, said the cooperatives, called sectors by the federal government, could bring stability to the industry, which has struggled in recent years as it faces stiff federal regulations and a government mandate to rebuild overfished stocks of cod, flounder, and haddock.
The concept of sectors is expected to be approved in June by the New England Fishery Management Council – which drafts federal fishing regulations – and also later this year by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.