The Northeast Seafood Coalition, the region’s largest industry organization, has put a $10,000 price on membership in the 13 fishing cooperative corporations or "sectors" that it is organizing to operate in the new catch share fishing regulatory system scheduled to go into partial use next May.
The size of the entrance fee has raised hackles in some quarters, and is certain to influence who joins a sector and how many New England groundfish permit-holders choose to remain unaffiliated while fishing in the independent common pool next year, the first year of the so-called Amendment 16 format.
Sector members will work off catch shares, as the government privatizes the historically public and commonly owned resource. The common pool of non-sector joiners will operate under an increasingly restrictive effort control system still based on limiting fishermen’s days at sea.