WASHINGTON – December 10, 2010 – (Saving Seafood) – A group of New England ground fishermen in the fixed gear, Coalition, and Port Clyde sectors from Portland, Port Clyde, Gloucester, New Bedford and Chatham met last week with top U.S. Commerce Department officials to send the message to regulators that they are “making sectors work,” according to a spokesman for the National Marine Fisheries Service and industry representatives in attendance.
The December 2nd meeting to discuss Catch Share/Sector regulations put in place by Amendment 16 was requested by an official with the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen's Association (CCHFA), but the group told Saving Seafood it was not a “Hookers” meeting, but simply a "range of ground fish fishermen from a number of ports who are fishing in Sectors this year”.
The meeting highlights the division in the industry over new rules. The unpopularity of the Amendment 16 management plans by some is driven by increasing unemployment and economic hardships. That hardship is seen as concrete evidence of the plan’s failure to address the needs of smaller players. There are also indications that the regulations are affecting small players with greater severity than larger commercial operations, and leading toward greater industry consolidation, as independent fishermen lease their quotas to larger operations.
But because the sector management plan and simultaneous severe cuts in catch levels were enacted together under Amendment 16, it is difficult for industry members, observers or analysts to determine which components of the obvious hardships are being caused by sector management, and which are a result of what many see as overly and unnecessarily restrictive catch levels.
NOAA Fisheries spokesman Monica Allen, who attended the meeting, told Saving Seafood that the industry representatives in attendance made the point that they were speaking for themselves and not the industry as a whole.
“They were pretty specific about that,” said Ms. Allen. “They wanted to present what was working for them. They said revenues are up, effort is down and they are fishing within the caps.”
Nevertheless, numerous government officials – including Commerce’s Deputy Chief of Staff Jay Reich, and Deputy Director of Policy and Strategic Planning Kristen Sarri, along with NOAA Fisheries chief Eric Schwaab, and Principle Deputy Undersecretary Monica Medina – were presented with a message that differs greatly from what is being heard from industry critics in the larger New England ports of New Bedford and Gloucester. In those ports, many small and individual boat owners have been forced by economic realities to lease their quota to larger commercial operations; criticism of the new regulations has been vocal, and it is the target of a Federal lawsuit.
Other NOAA officials at the meeting included General Counsel Lois Schiffer, Chief Science Advisor Steve Murawski, Director of Communications Justin Kenney, External Affairs Director Andrew Winer, and NOAA Fisheries Deputy Assistant Administrator for Regulatory Programs Sam Rauch.
The Coalition Sectors represent the majority (62%, 474 permits) of the total New England permits operating in sectors. Toby Lees of Fairhaven, Massachusetts – the sole representative from the Coalition Sectors and the New Bedford area, has leased his quota and is no longer fishing. The Fixed Gear Sector (12%, 94 permits) and the Port Clyde Sector (5%, 41 permits) were represented by multiple attendees. Mr. Lees and most of the private sector attendees did not respond to several requests for comment about the meeting.
But Jim Odlin, a New England Fisheries Management Council member from Maine with Portland’s Atlantic Trawlers Fishing, told Saving Seafood that his message to NOAA was straightforward. He noted that while he was not speaking for his sector, as a fisherman and boat owner, “sector management was much better than the alternative.”
“Regulatory discards have dropped dramatically,” said Mr. Odlin. “If nothing else, that is a positive thing.”
When asked about those in the industry who have raised concerns about the regulations and their potentially forcing consolidation, Mr. Odlin assessed the complaints from an industry-wide perspective.
“People who are actually operating under the controls are positive, people who are not operating are not,” he said. “The alternative was to be cut to approximately 20 days at sea per year. I don’t think that would have been very acceptable. More fish is being landed under sectors than was being landed before. We pointed out that we are able to target healthier stocks of fish, which is a positive.”
NOAA Fisheries’ Ms. Allen also noted that Mr. Odlin told the government officials that he has been able to increase the number of full-time positions on his vessels from five to seven since implementation of the rules. But Mr. Odlin and other industry attendees were not entirely positive about the regulations. Ms. Allen confirmed that Mr. Odlin and others requested help with future costs of dockside and on-water monitoring. They also asked the collected officials to address reopening areas currently closed to fishing, all issues Mr. Odlin said they were told would be examined.
Asked if the issue of quota leasing was addressed in the meeting, Ms. Allen said she was not positive but doesn’t believe it was.
When asked about it, Tom Dempsey, policy director of the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen's Association and the person who requested the meeting, dismissed any talk about its importance in regard to the lingering differences over sector management within the industry.
“The point of it (the meeting) was for fishermen to talk about what was working and what was not in sector management.” Mr. Dempsey told Saving Seafood. “ I don’t think there is news (in the fact) that there is difference of opinion…, that has been pretty well covered.”
Other private sector attendees included:
– Vincent Balzano, captain of the vessel North Star based out of Portland, ME
– John Our, a fishing vessel owner based on Cape Cod.
– Jan Margenson, a Cape Cod gill-netter
– Maggie Raymond, Associated Fisheries of Maine.
– Mike Leary, New England Fisheries Management Council member from New Hampshire.
– Mike Russo