Management & Regulation

New Bedford is the most lucrative fishing port in the nation, and has been for years (heck, much of the nation’s history). So New Bedford politicians will, of course, stand up for their fishermen. And New England has never been known for overly cordial fisherman-regulator relations. But the fight seems to have escalated to a new level this week. Here’s the run-down of recent events.

May 1st, 2010: The New England multi-species groundfish fishery (fifteen species including cod, haddock, and flounder) becomes the first in the nation to transition to a new management system known as catch shares. A total catch limit for a given

May 7th, 2010: New Bedford joins a federal lawsuit contesting the legality of the catch shares system and the city’s mayor, Scott Lang, has formed his own fisheries advisory group.

August 29st, 2010: Four months into the catch shares experiment, the new management scheme is “working just the way both its detractors and its supporters believed it would.” 60% of the fleet is sitting at the dock; fishermen have decided it’s more cost effective to sell their catch shares and wait for prices to rise. In a three-part series on the topic, the New Bedford Standard Times says there could be severe financial repercussions for businesses that support fishermen.

November 5th, 2010: Governor Deval Patrick submits a reanalysis of fisheries stock assessments and economic impact estimates and requests emergency action to increase groundfish catch limits and provide financial aid to fishermen who fear they are being put out of business by the catch shares management system.

January 7th, 2011: Commerce Secretary Gary Locke denies Governor Deval Patrick’s request to raise groundfish quotas and provide financial aid, saying that such a move would require new scientific data (not just a different analysis) and stronger evidence of economic hardship.

Read the complete timeline at WGBH Boston.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More deep-water closures are impacting fishermen on the South Atlantic coast. Federal fishery managers voted this week to close black sea bass from February to June. Red snapper were closed along the South Atlantic coast two months ago.

And several grouper species will be closed starting Monday beyond 240 feet from North Carolina to South Florida, including gag, snowy, red and black grouper. These closures are aimed at protecting Warsaw grouper and speckled hind, two species in decline.

At issue in these closures and others around Florida is the federal managers' reaction to the updated Magnuson-Stevens Act in 2006 that called to an end for all overfishing.

Critics, led by the Coastal Conservation Association, continually question the science employed to determine the need for closures on either side of the state.

Read the complete story from The Ledger.

 

 

 

 

 

Mayor Scott Lang of New Bedford, Massachusetts, and his fishery advisory council crossed state lines to confront the New England Fishery Management Council with scientific evidence that the NEFMC has set fishing allocations much too conservatively.

NEFMC held a three-day meeting in Portsmouth, N.H., and Mayor Lang scheduled his meeting to start after they had adjourned for the second day so that the NEFMC members could attend. To their credit, they did attend, making their long day even longer. Also in attendance were representatives of both New Hampshire senators, both Massachusetts senators, and several House member representatives.

The highlight of the evening was the presentation by professor Steve Cadrin of UMass Dartmouth. Cadrin explained, in reasonable non-professorial language, the basis for increasing fishing allocations while staying within the scientific constraints of the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

Gov. Deval Patrick's October letter to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke was based on the data in this presentation. Patrick's letter was cavalierly rejected by Locke and NOAA, essentially passing the buck to the NEFMC.

Read the complete letter from the South Coast Today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

PLYMOUTH — Scores of fishermen have stopped going to sea in the past year as controversial new rules take hold that could fundamentally alter the storied fishing economy, culture, and communities of New England.

There are some signs the new rules, which assign groups of fishermen a quota on their catch of cod and other bottom-hugging fish, could accelerate a trend of consolidating those boats into far fewer, more efficient vessels. Some small-boat fishermen are selling or leasing their allotment to others under the new rules because they cannot turn a profit.

“This may not be the end of fishing, but it is the end of fishing as we know it,’’ said Steve Welch, as he tinkered on one of his two boats, the Holly & Abby, in Plymouth. Nearby, his dog Hudson ate mussels that seagulls dropped on an icy dock. Welch leased the fishing privileges on both his boats and laid off three workers this year. “We are talking jobs, tradition, culture,’’ he said. “All that will be left are large boats owned by corporations with deep pockets.’’
 

The fears over consolidation are raising questions among fishermen, environmentalists, and federal officials over what New England’s beleaguered fishing industry should look like when depleted fish stocks rebound.

Regulators are meeting today to decide what additional measures, if any, the fleet needs to maintain diversity of ownership, ports, and the size of boats under the new rules. What they do will have ramifications not only for New England fishermen but across the country as similar management schemes are proposed.

Under the new scheme, most fishermen are divided into groups called sectors, which are given a share of the annual quota of cod, flounder, and other bottom-dwelling fish. That quota is then divided among fishermen. The rules were approved by the New England Fishery Management Council and the National Marine Fisheries Service in part to help fishermen deal with a brutal truth: Despite years of cutting fish catches to combat overfishing, the fish were still not coming back fast enough to comply with a 1996 law. That meant dramatically lower fish catches for most fishermen this year.

Read the complete story from The Boston Globe.

 

 

 

 

 

Portsmouth, NH  Responding to testimony over the course of several meetings, the New England Fishery Management Council this week approved new measure for the region’s skate fishery. The changes should better ensure the availability of skates to fishermen, and in particular processors, for a longer period of time this year. In 2010, the directed skate fishery closed on September 3rd, affecting employment in fisheries-related businesses. 

By a near unanimous vote, the Council set in motion the process that could lead to the implementation of new skate rules beginning on May 1, 2011. The measures include a split season skate wing possession limit in which the current 500 pound incidental limit would be increased to 2,600 pounds from May 1 to August 31, and then to 4,100 pounds beginning on September 1. After that date and once a “trigger” of 85 percent of the total allowable landings is reached, the possession limit would decline to a 1,250 pound “incidental” limit on skate wings, instead of this year’s 500 pound limit. The stepwise approach to the reductions is intended to promote continued fishing activities without exceeding the specified total allowable landings. They also are expected to promote a reduction in discards and postpone the most intense skate fishing until the time of year when skate prices historically peak.

The Council also voted to allow vessels that process skate wings at sea to also land skate carcasses for use in the lobster bait market. Although an infrequent practice in the skate wing fishery due to market constraints, this change would allow vessels to more fully utilize the fish and add value to the skate landings. The change is necessary to clarify that the additional carcass landings would not count against the annual skate wing landings limit, since the carcass landings would not contribute to added mortality.

The Council took no action on a much-discussed 20,000 pound skate possession limit that was initially supported by New Bedford. Subsequent comments and analyses from both industry and technical groups did not support this alternative because it could lead to derby-style fishing, a lengthier directed fishery closure and higher skate discarding than would occur under the Council-adopted measures. The National Marine Fisheries Service, acting on behalf of the Secretary of Commerce, is responsible for final approval of federal fishery measures.  

Read the press release.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grand Strand fishermen are taking their fight against a catch limits to North Charleston Wednesday. About 40 men left Wednesday morning to attend one of several public hearings held by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council.

Charter fishing boat owners and commercial fishermen say that bag limits on black sea bass, scheduled to begin next month and continue until June first, will cripple their earnings.

"That's our primary fish that we fish for during that time of year," said Keith Logan, owner of Feedin' Frenzy Charters of Little River.

Logan says he doesn't believe the Fishery Council's count of black bass or other species are accurate or that catch limits are needed to prevent overfishing of those species.

The limits on black sea bass are part of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Act hat went into effect several years ago and fishermen say there's not much they can do to stop it now. But they hope to prevent proposed limits on other popular species, like wahoo, cobia and mahi.

Read the complete story from Carolina Live.

 

 

 

 

 

MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WMBF) –  Grand Strand fishermen will be gathering in North Charleston Wednesday to voice their concerns about proposed catch limits that they believe will negatively impact business.

The limits come as the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council works to comply with a federal mandate to set catch limits based on best available data. "To be honest with you sometimes that can mean garbage unfortunately," shared Tom Swatzel, member of the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council. Swatzel says the data has to be improved before fishermen are going to have confidence in the system.

"The fishermen are seeing a lot of fish out there," he said. "The scientists are showing something different and it's kind of hard to reconcile the two." Swatzel says the fishery council gets caught in the middle in trying to reconcile the data with the concerns over the data's accuracy.

Read the complete story and see the video at WMBF.

 

 

 

 

 

 

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — New Bedford Mayor Scott W. Lang and his fishery advisory council Tuesday took their case for relief from stringent groundfishing regulations straight to the decision-makers at the New England Fishery Management Council.

The presentation, down the hotel hallway from the New England council's three-day regular meeting, attracted an audience of 75 people representing virtually all segments of the commercial fishing industry in the Northeast.

Also on hand were representatives of four U.S. senators and six congressmen from fishing states, state Sen. Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester, and four members of the New Bedford City Council: Joseph Lopes, Steven Martins, Linda Morad and John Saunders.

New Bedford and Gloucester are leading the scientific, political and legal charge to persuade or force the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to raise catch limits within the scientific margin of error and stop the dismantling of the fishing industry and its infrastructure.

Most, if not all, of the NEFMC members attended to hear the city's case much as it was presented in a meeting Jan. 13 in New Bedford. The presentations arose from Commerce Secretary Gary Locke's letter to Gov. Deval Patrick that entirely rejected the governor's scientifically justified plea for increased catch limits along with economic help for struggling boat owners and their families.

The only representative of environmental groups that strongly influence fisheries policy came from the Pew Foundation, and she was briefly booed during introductions.

Read the complete story from the South Coast Today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Each week on WBSM in New Bedford, Massachusetts, Bob Vanasse of Saving Seafood joins host Phil Paleologos to discuss issues related to the fisheries with news-making guests.

Legal Sea Foods' CEO Roger Berkowitz joins Phil and Bob to discuss the "Sustainable Seafood" dinner he will co-host with the Culinary Guild of New England where tiger shrimp, cod and hake will be served — all items the Monterey Bay Aquarium advises people not to eat.

"A lot of people have been brainwashed," Berkowitz told The Gloucester Times. "There's no scientific basis for what they are saying. Restaurants and chefs don't understand any of this when Monterey comes to them."

The dinner will be held on Monday night, Jan. 24, at Legal Sea Foods in Park Square in Boston — and is designed to showcase "sustainable seafood" that the leading guides recommend against serving based on what he describes as "non-scientific reasons."

The four-course meal, which will also feature tiger prawns and hake, will be served at Legal Sea Foods' Park Square location in Boston on January 24. The full menu consists of "black tiger shrimp fritters, with chick peas, slab bacon, smoked tomato and avocado sauce, cod cheeks with spaghetti squash, toasted pecans, melting marrow gremola, and prosciutto-wrapped hake, with braised escarole, rancho gorgo beans and blood orange marmalade, together with wines."

[click here and listen now]

 

 

 

We wanted to believe Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke last October when he said he'd consider raising catch limits in the New England groundfishery if the case could be made that government regulations and policies had created an economic emergency. Our own government leaders, right up to Gov. Deval Patrick, clearly took Locke at his word.

Now, we know. Locke's promise of "consideration" was nothing more than a sham.

There is simply no other way to view his insulting, indefensible denial of any "emergency" boost in groundfish limits, and his lack of recognition of the dire effect the current limits, coupled with NOAA chief Jane Lubchenco's "catch share" system, is having here on the North Shore and beyond.

Locke essentially claims that a study commissioned by Gov. Patrick and carried out by scientists at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth didn't show the economic need or make the case from a scientific standpoint.

Yet the state has shown that, under the Amendment 16 framework that includes catch share system, just 10 percent of the boats landed 64 percent of the total revenue from May through September — a grim statistic for small, independent fishing businesses. Over the first six months of the fishing year, New England's groundfishermen brought in just 13 percent of the allowable catch in cod, a largely rebuilt stock. And, in an increasingly restored fishery, landings were down up to 11 percent from August through September.

Read the complete editorial from The Salem News.