Economic Impact

When it comes to receiving public appreciation, collection agencies don’t usually make the top of anyone’s list. In fact, they might not make it on the list at all.

But from the point of view of a small business looking to get paid, a debt collector can sometimes be one’s best friend.

That’s true for the fishing industry, which has found a friend in businessman Neal Workman, CEO and president of seafooddebtors.com. The Boston-based business uses the Internet to collect on sizable debts in the seafood industry.

Workman’s specialty is collecting debt for products that spoil quickly, like fish.

Read the complete story at The South Coast Today.

Found along the continental shelf, the Atlantic deep-sea red crab, the Chaceon quinquedens, is steadily gaining appreciation among consumers for its taste and texture. A product of the cold ocean depths, the crabs are taken in wire pots, baited with menhaden and set in water from 350 to 400 fathoms deep (2,100 to 2,400 feet). The crabs are kept alive in saltwater tanks on each vessel with the temperature maintained at a constant 38 degrees.

Red crabs may not be as sexy as their more illustrious cousins, such as king crab and Dungeness, but they are certainly abundant.

The new company also received a welcome boost just this month when it was awarded certification by the Marine Stewardship Council.

The council, a London-based nonprofit, seeks to influence consumers when buying seafood by issuing ecolabels to fisheries around the globe that it deems sustainable. Atlantic Red Crab is the first company on the East Coast to attain such certification.

Williams, who is from Maine, started the company himself, with the support of investors. He is optimistic about the future.

"For the last 14 years, every pound of this crab has been going to Canada to be processed and brought back to the U.S. for sale," he said.

"Now we’re doing it all here, and the city has welcomed us. Between the boats and the plant, we’re bringing about a hundred new jobs to the city. We’re glad to be in a place that appreciates commercial fishermen."

He added that "Kristin Decas from the Harbor Development Commission really went the extra mile and we’re planning to do a ribbon-cutting ceremony with Mayor (Scott) Lang soon."

Williams, who fished crab in the Bering Sea for 10 years, bought his first boat for red crab in 1996 and has worked in the industry ever since. "It’s always been a great product but it’s just never really been appreciated or available. We aim to change that," he said.

Opening the city plant derived from a business plan that called for "vertical integration," Williams said. The company owns the boats, the crabs are cooked and the meat picked in the company’s plant, and boat arrivals can be coordinated to ensure a constant supply of product.

"We extract the meat and make it available, ready to eat, in small-portion cups," Williams said. A 6-ounce cup of crab meat retails for $8.99, he said, and the company is working out distribution deals with large retailers.

Read the complete story at The South Coast Today.

Fewer and fewer locals and tourists are shelling out for lobster dinners this summer, according to local lobstermen.

“Lobster is a happy food,” said Laddie Dexter, a 70-year-old lobsterman who works out of Marshfield’s Green Harbor. “It is a celebration food. Very few people eat it twice a week, or even once a month.”

The American lobster is thriving off the Gulf of Maine and down through much of the Massachusetts coastline, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. But many of New England’s lobster fishermen are suffering the financial consequences of an overall low demand for the crustaceans.

Read the complete story at Wicked Local.

The New England groundfish fishery is one of the most historically significant fisheries in the world. The greatest parts of the New England character and all of New England’s coastal communities have deep roots in it going back for centuries. Were it not for the groundfish fishery, for the money it generated and for the people that it attracted, New England would be a far different region, lacking much of what makes it so attractive today.

We have been told for years that the New England groundfish fishery in particular is in a state of crisis. In seemingly endless media accounts, in foundation-funded study after study and report after report, the New England groundfish fishery is held up as one of the best examples available of how a fishery can be destroyed by mismanagement. We are constantly told that because of the rapacity of the fishermen and their willingness to break the laws, the laxness of fisheries enforcement, the conflicts of interest in the management bodies, the overwhelming efficiency of the boats and gear, the overcapitalization of the fleet, in fact, because of virtually everything that the fishermen are either responsible for or have any influence over, they are all facing imminent financial ruin and will only be saved (from themselves, of course) by a revolutionary shift in how we manage our fisheries.

It seems a classic disaster in the making, and thanks to a media machine that’s hungry for bad news to report, and to journalists who generally have neither the resources and skills necessary for nor the interest in digging beyond the canned gloom and doom releases that are incessantly provided by the ocean branch of the crisis industry, it’s a perception that’s well on its way to becoming a reality. And it’s doing so with the apparent encouragement of the upper echelon of the National Marine Fisheries Service in the US Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA/NMFS), the agency that is responsible for managing our federal fisheries and our coastal waters outside of three miles.

Read the complete story at FishNET USA.

Gloucester Times Editor Ray Lamont responds to the Northeast Seafood Coalition’s response to the Times’ August 4 story “Fishing sector fee of 10k draws fire”  

Read the original story

Read the Northeast Seafood Coalition response 

As editor of the Gloucester Daily Times, I’m writing to make certain that Saving Seafood readers are aware that we absolutely stand by our story regarding the Northeast Seafood Coalition’s collecting of a $10,000 fee — or however the NSC wants to phrase it. 

In responding to the story, Vito Giacalone insists there are several "inaccuracies" in the story, but in reading his letter closely — which we also plan to essentially run in the Times — he doesn’t really cite any inaccuracies at all. He seems to be suggesting that his concern is with how the story with "lead" readers; I submit that we have no idea of how a reader may read or interpret a story — that that’s up to each and every reader.  But the facts in the story — carefully researched as always by multipe award-wining reporter Richard Gaines — are as stated. 

We appreciate Vito’s effort to provide more information about this effort — notably that the $10,000 paid by the fishermen will go to their individual sectors, not to the NSC itself. Yet he also notes that the NSC is in fact managing the sectors, and that teh NSC will be recouping fees for its services in setting up the sectors and handling other aspects of this conversion.  But to suggest that our story noting that the NSC was in fact collecting the $10,000 from fishermen to essentially become part of a sector is innacurate is, well, inaccurate in its own right. 

We at the Times have a great working relatonship with Vito Giacalone, Jackie Odell and the Northeast Seafood Coalition, we’ve consistently endorsed all of their efforts and continue to do so.  Even in this instance, I’d like to think that Vito doesn’t intend to really suggest that our coverage of this and of other issues is in "inaccurate" — because it clearly is not. I can understand that this is an emotional time for everyone in the commercial fishing industry, and that he is legitimately concerned with how readers on all sides of these issues may "read" or interpret these stories. But I also have confidence that readers will digest the facts as presented, and that they can indeed interpret those facts as they choose.

Our job as a newspaper and media company is to present the facts accurately, and to leave the interpretetion to our readers — and that’s what I believe we have done in this case, as with all of our news coverage. 

 

Ray Lamont 

Editor, Gloucester Daily Times 

rlamont@gloucestertimes.com 

 

The Northeast Seafood Coalition responds to the Gloucester Times front page article “Fishing sector fee of 10k draws fire” 

 

"I’m confident the GDT and Richard Gaines meant no harm to the NSC and that the substantial inaccuracies of the report were simply due to the haste of getting a story in under a deadline. But, these are complicated issues and a very sensitive time in our fishery– a time when we can least afford to have misinformation cause the industry to doubt the strongest allies it has in this fight for survival."

 

n.b. The Editor of the Gloucester Times, Ray Lamont, has responded to this response. Read his reply here.

 

by Vito Giacalone 

The Gloucester Times front page article “Fishing sector fee of 10k draws fire” by Richard Gaines (August 4th) contained incomplete or incorrect information that is sure to mislead. The record needs to be set straight immediately. 

The article begins by reporting that the Northeast Seafood Coalition (NSC) has put a $10,000 price on membership to the 13 cooperative corporations or “sectors” they are organizing……”  This statement is entirely misleading in that it incorrectly leads the reader to believe that the NSC is charging fishermen an admission fee, payable to the NSC for the benefit of the NSC.  Later in the article Gaines incorrectly placed an overall cost of $750,000 in the same sentence with my quote that the NSC should be “made whole”. The way Richard placed this into one sentence implies that the NSC is seeking to recoup $ 750,000 by charging 10k to fishermen to join a sector. This is also entirely inaccurate. 

As I intended to clearly explain to the GDT, being “made whole” means insuring that the organization (NSC) which has invested an enormous amount of time and money into the effort to provide the entire industry with a sector “OPTION” is not left with any debts, and that the membership’s hard-earned financial reserves that were expended should be replenished.  In case there remains any further confusion, here are all the facts. 

Sectors will operate as independent corporations. These corporations will have to comply with all state and federal corporate laws, meet strict reporting and monitoring standards and implement sophisticated communications and data collection and analysis systems. In order for these new “businesses” to succeed, like any business, they will need at least some level of working capital. They will need to employ a Sector Manager, secure a contract with a dockside monitoring vendor, and hopefully, achieve an economy of scale by networking with their sibling sectors throughout the region to seek optimal efficiency in operations. All of this will require some level of investment by the members of each sector.  

To my knowledge, of the nineteen sectors that will be submitting operations plans for 2010, the NSC is the only organization assisting the industry in sector development that has not asked for one nickel from any fisherman to date. Other sectors have all required at least this level (10k) of commitment. I would also note that some of us at NSC have donated years of our time and expenses to this fishery-wide effort to the benefit of NSC members and non-members alike. 

The NSC is recommending an initial financial commitment of $10,000 from each member of a sector that will actively harvest the sector’s allocation. Only $ 2,500 is required up front and the balance paid on terms. The funds will be paid to the individual sector corporations which the NSC has formed on behalf of the various sectors. No fee will be charged for permits that enroll to lease their allocations within the sector and that will not actively harvest quota themselves during that year. Each sector will repay a portion of the fees to the NSC to cover any outstanding debt and to replenish reserves that were derived from membership and internal resources. The balance will remain with the new sector entities. All sector members, whether current, past or non-members of NSC will have to pay the fee to their sector.  

Further, past membership contributions will be credited towards the fee as a means to appropriately recognize past financial commitment to the NSC, and to allow all sector members to be on equal footing in their new enterprises for the future. 

Finally, what is most important for fishermen to understand is that this financial commitment is to your own sector……..NOT TO THE NSC. Of course, each sector will be expected to pay it’s fair share for covering the costs incurred by the NSC that are above those funds already secured through contracts, but the balance will remain within the sector network.  

Although, the NSC has been very resourceful in finding creative ways to complete this effort so that most of the funds collected by the sectors can remain as working capital for the sectors (not for NSC), the truth is that this enormous sector effort has been extremely expensive. The NSC took on this daunting and thankless project NOT for political or financial gain, but out of pure commitment and devotion to the industry it serves. If not for the NSC’s work to establish 13 sectors and to make sure that as many member and non-member fishermen put their names on a roster as we could reach, nearly 2/3 of the active fleet in the Northeast region would not have the sector OPTION at all. They would have no choice at all but to remain in the common pool. The NSC fought hard to create and preserve that option for everyone—especially those who were not paying attention to what was going on at the management and government levels.  With all that in mind, it certainly seems reasonable for the organization to expect that it will not be left with a debt.  

Through the incredible efforts of the NSC executive director Jackie Odell, the NSC was awarded a contract with the State of Massachusetts DMF that provided seed monies that were applied to several policy and legal activities in the early stages of the sector initiative. This contract represented less than 1/3 of the initial estimated costs to complete sector development for all 13 sectors. Since then, a combination of membership reserves, the Gulf of Maine Research Institute providing a very capable and invaluable sector staff person, NOAA hiring a contractor to complete the EAs, and a massive dose of volunteerism and internal shifts in human resources has carried the NSC closer to the finish line—but all the while running on fumes. 

Folks should also know that the NSC is 100% industry / membership funded. Since the group formed in 2002, the NSC has never received outside funding (other than the DMF contract).  Although millions of dollars have been granted and expended in just the past several years by PEW charitable trust, Conservation Law Foundation, Environmental Defense Fund, Ocean Conservancy and many other NGO’s and Foundations, for various “projects” to promote catch shares, the NSC has plowed along proudly and successfully without it. 

The NSC’s Board should be proud of the selfless and independent policies their organization continues to promote.  I’m confident the GDT and Richard Gaines meant no harm to the NSC and that the substantial inaccuracies of the report were simply due to the haste of getting a story in under a deadline. But, these are complicated issues and a very sensitive time in our fishery– a time when we can least afford to have misinformation cause the industry to doubt the strongest allies it has in this fight for survival. Our industry deserves to know the truth that it is their own brothers within the industry and the NSC that are truly fighting the fight.  

Vito Giacalone is a board member of the Northeast Seafood Coalition 

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.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

The size of the lobster catch is bigger than ever, thanks to excellent oversight of Maine’s lobster fishery. Maine lobstermen caught 67 million pounds of the crustaceans last year, 4 million more than in 2007 and triple the amount caught 20 years ago.

Of course you don’t need a Ph.D. in economics to know what happens when supply is up and demand is way down. The wholesale or "boat" price of lobsters has crashed from a peak price of about $10 a pound in the winter of 2006 — average prices in recent years have hovered around $4.50 a pound — to a mere $2.25 today.

"We’re basically off the charts historically in terms of low prices for this time of year," says John Sackton, a Lexington, Mass.-based seafood industry consultant.

Read the complete story at Yahoo! Finance.

This report by the Pew Trust Environmental Group prepared by John M. Gates dated 2009 provides a new analysis of the potential economic benefits of rebuilding depleted fish populations in the Mid-Atlantic.

For both commercial and recreational fishing sectors, rebuilding populations of black sea bass, bluefish, butterfish and summer flounder by 2007 would have generated an additional $570 million per year in perpetuity in direct economic benefits.

Read the complete story at Pace Environmental Notes.

A report released today by the Pew Environment Group reveals significant potential financial benefits of rebuilding four fish species in the Mid-Atlantic: summer flounder, black sea bass, butterfish and bluefish.

The report, Investing in Our Future: The Economic Case for Rebuilding Mid-Atlantic Fish Populations, provides a new analysis and estimates direct financial benefits by comparing status quo management of four particular fish species with what would have happened, if those populations had been rebuilt by 2007. The report finds that rebuilding summer flounder, black sea bass, butterfish and bluefish populations by 2007 would have generated an additional $570 million per year in direct economic benefits in perpetuity. In five years, that number would amount to approximately $2.85 billion.

“Results from this study provide strong analytical evidence that there is significant value in rebuilding fish populations and lost financial benefits from delayed action,” said Dr. John M. Gates, report author and professor emeritus, Departments of Economics, Environmental and Natural Resource Economics, University of Rhode Island. “It’s important to note that the primary, direct benefits represent a conservative estimate and, if related economic benefits had been included, the result would likely expand well beyond the figures estimated in this study.”

Read the complete story at The Pew Charitable Trusts.