A new federal requirement that dockside monitors board fishing boats and enter the holds of vessels after the unload to root out any unreported fish has come under fire from U.S. Sen John Kerry, the Northeast Seafood Coalition — and even the New England text-Fishery Management Council, which wrote in the requirement last November.
The mandate is part of the second-year rules within Amendment 16, the groundfishery regimen that includes the new catch share management regimen,
Although the council put the new requirement in place, its members vote overwhelmingly at the panel's April meeting to urge the National Marine Fisheries Service negate the action after an impassioned argument by Councilor David Goethel, a commercial fisherman who is recovering from a near-fatal dockside accident.
Goethel argued that the task would lead to serious injuries for monitors, who typically are not commercial fishermen but are hired by the monitoring companies for their ability to count fish.
A spokeswoman for NMFS Administrator Eric Schwaab, meanwhile, said "a response was being prepared" to a letter from Kerry.
The new duties of the monitors were recommended by "enforcement personnel," according to the official text of Framework 45, the set of amendments to the landmark catch share regulatory scheme that encourages fishermen to buy, sell or trade their shares of an assigned "catch," either among themselves or, as has proven the case, to larger companies and investors.
Kerry wrote to Schwaab last month to express his concerns about giving monitors, employees of outsourced contractors, the responsibility of entering the holds of commercial fishing boats.
He wrote that the new assignment was dangerous, and would expose the boat owners to new liabilities "and insurance issues that necessarily flow from such injuries." Moreover, Kerry wrote, the work "has previously fallen squarely within the purview of the Office of Law Enforcement."
Kerry questioned the propriety of assigning monitors to do law enforcement work, and wrote, "It is my understanding that this proposal will not result in the collection of any data that will be used to improve fisheries management."
"Instead," he wrote, "it is solely aimed at ensuring that all of the fish has been removed from the vessel."
The Gloucester-based Northeast Seafood Coalition also critiqued NMFS for requiring monitors to go looking for fish in the holds.
The coalition, the largest industry organization in the region "strongly rejects" the economic impact analysis for the action, which presumed the monitoring service companies liability insurance would be sufficient to cover injuries.
"The reference insurance coverage will not protect individual vessel owners from civil actions taken by family members of a dockside monitor that may be injured in the course of inspecting a vessel," the coalition said in a prepared statement. "Vessels wishing to protect themselves against such civil actions will be required to either purchase new coverage or increased coverage at significant cost in increased premiums."
Read the complete story from The Gloucester Times.
Read the letter to Eric Schwaab from Senator Kerry.