The New England Fishery Management Council voted in June to bring sector management to the fishery next May. Long before then, however, groundfish harvesters had to decide whether to join a sector — a group of fishermen who receive an allotment of the total allowable catch based on their collective catch history — or fish in the common pool under the present effort control system.
Harvesters had to commit to joining a sector before final operations plans were submitted by Sept. 1, even though they won’t know what the annual catch limits or their share of it will be until November. Right now, it’s difficult to determine whether they will fare better in a sector or in the common pool. Count Hampton, N.H., fisherman and New England council member Dave Goethel among those who don’t know which route they’ll take.
“I haven’t decided what I’m doing. I have two permits that are basically worthless,” Goethel says. “I’m going to have to really look at this carefully.”