Saving Seafood

State and Local

Fishermen gather for summit on industry’s fate

Some fishermen and advocates for the industry voiced concern at a regional summit Monday about upcoming federal regulations they warn could put them out of business, while others suggested the changes were a necessary way to curb overfishing.

Fishermen and elected leaders gathered at the New Bedford Whaling Museum ahead of a scheduled May 1 switch to a "sector" system of fishing, in which Northeast fishermen would be broken into groups and forced to combine their catch allotments.

Though the system is intended to give fishermen more autonomy by allowing them to manage their allotments among themselves, some are concerned their individual shares would be taken by large companies and that the given shares would not be enough to allow them to survive.

"Fifty percent of you will be out of business by August. That's not what you want to hear, but that's what you're going to get," warned Carlos Rafael, a fishing boat owner in the Port of New Bedford who participated in a panel discussion about the new system. Rafael said the new management system was "being stuffed down our throats."

Read the complete story at WBZ 1030.

Governor Deval Patrick addresses Northeast Fisheries Summit

Governor Patrick visited the New Bedford Whaling Museum on March 8th for the Northeast Fisheries Summit with dozens of Massachusetts fishing families who proudly carry on the tradition of living and working at sea. The Governor encourages our political leaders and fishing communities to continue to work together toward the shared objectives of sustainability and economic vitality.

The Governor's release on the visit appears below.

* Governor Patrick has called for a high-level review of the nation's fisheries management process for efficiency and consistency. The principles of equity, fairness, conservation, preservation of jobs, and flexibility in management are the way forward.   

* Governor Patrick has worked with leaders in Washington to secure millions of dollars in federal aid for our fishing families — $13.4 million for groundfish disaster emergency relief, $2 million for Massachusetts shellfishermen after the Red Tide outbreak, and $3.2 million now pending for a survey of groundfish and study of new fishing techniques are just a few examples.

* The Governor worked with Chairman John Pappalardo to demand that the New England Fisheries Management Council reconsider their proposed scallop catch limits. The result was $40 million in direct benefits to the New Bedford scallop industry.

* The challenge for our state's fishing communities is to maintain harmony between tough economic realities and delicate environmental conditions. Governor Patrick is working hard to ensure that our fishing families thrive not just today, but for generations to come.

Rare northern right whales were not hunted to the brink

One of the rarest whales in the world was not a victim of extensive whaling as previously supposed. Fewer than 350 North Atlantic right whales remain, with the blame for their demise laid at the harpoon tips of 16th and 17th century whalers.

But a new study of ancient whale bones confirms the population of northern right whales has for centuries been small with a limited genetic diversity. That strongly suggests a mass cull of the animals never took place.

One researcher, Dr Moira Brown, now at the New England Aquarium in Boston, US realised that if DNA could be extracted from these bones, it could reveal a host of information about the culled whales.

In earlier research, Dr McLeod, Dr Brown and colleagues managed to do just that. They extracted DNA from 218 whale bones recovered from either the galleon or from the shores of Quebec and Labrador, whey they had been lying for 400 years at sites of long-forgotten Basque whaling stations.

Of those bones, just one came from a North Atlantic right whale, the others all coming from bowhead whales. "There was absolutely no evidence of a right whale targeted hunt," Dr McLeod told the BBC.

Read the complete story at The BBC.

NMFS chief gets earful at ‘Summit’

The Northeast Fisheries Summit drew almost 300 people to the city Monday, a veritable “Who's Who” of the fishing industry, giving the new NOAA fisheries director an earful about what they view as the coming crisis in the Northeast fishing industry.

Eric Schwaab, just three weeks into his job as the assistant administrator for fisheries at NOAA, sat in the front row of the Whaling Museum's packed auditorium and heard one speaker after another assail his agency for its policies, its attitude, and its law enforcement.

Representatives of all kinds of players in the fishing industry were encouraged to put their cards on the table, and they did, in 10-minute presentations that were sometimes angry, sometimes emotional.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

Patrick calls for technology to improve accuracy of fish counts

Governor Deval Patrick today said federal regulators and researchers should use the newest technology as they make crucial calculations about the vibrancy of fish stocks off the Massachusetts coastline.

Speaking at a summit on the fishing industry being at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, Patrick noted that representatives of the fishing industry were among the first people he met after he took office in 2006. He also noted the historic link between the industry and the Bay State.

"We know fishing in Massachusetts,'' he said. "We've been at it for centuries.''

Federal regulators frequently come under fire from fishermen for the techniques used to provide estimates of the populations of fish and other sea life routinely harvested for markets. The industry historically complains that regulators and researchers undercount stocks.

Read the complete story at The Boston Globe.

Fishermen gather in New Bedford for industry summit

Some fishermen and advocates for the industry voiced concern at a regional summit today about upcoming federal regulations they warn could put them out of business, while others suggested the changes were a necessary way to curb overfishing.

Fishermen and elected leaders gathered at the New Bedford Whaling Museum ahead of a scheduled May 1 switch to a "sector" system of fishing, in which Northeast fishermen would be broken into groups and forced to combine their catch allotments.

Though the system is intended to give fishermen more autonomy by allowing them to manage their allotments among themselves, some are concerned their individual shares would be taken by large companies and that the given shares would not be enough to allow them to survive.

Read the complete story at The Boston Herald.

VIDEO: Fishermen gather for summit on industry’s fate

Some fishermen and advocates for the industry voiced concern at a regional summit Monday about upcoming federal regulations they warn could put them out of business, while others suggested the changes were a necessary way to curb overfishing.

Fishermen and elected leaders gathered at the New Bedford Whaling Museum ahead of a scheduled May 1 switch to a “sector” system of fishing, in which Northeast fishermen would be broken into groups and forced to combine their catch allotments.

Though the system is intended to give fishermen more autonomy by allowing them to manage their allotments among themselves, some are concerned their individual shares would be taken by large companies and that the given shares would not be enough to allow them to survive.

“Fifty percent of you will be out of business by August. That’s not what you want to hear, but that’s what you’re going to get,“ warned Carlos Rafael, a fishing boat owner in the Port of New Bedford who participated in a panel discussion about the new system. Rafael said the new management system was “being stuffed down our throats.“

See the video at NBC 10 Providence.

New England Fishing Communities: Prospects and Uncertainties by Robert J. Johnston, Daniel S. Holland, and Seth Tuler

New commercial fishing regulations designed to enhance the long-term viability and profitability of New England fishing will create benefits and costs for fishermen. Support from policymakers, nonprofits, and banks can help keep small-scale fishermen and their communities viable while benefiting the region overall.

The sector approach is not a panacea. Many problems facing fisheries result from an excess of boats and fishermen relative to what current fish stocks can support. For some species to recover, catches must be further reduced. Although that will likely have neg- ative economic implications in the short run, there is a broad expectation that sectors will improve the industry’s overall performance and reduce the impetus to discard harvested fish to meet regulations (a wasteful process known as regulatory discarding). Sectors also could foster cooperation to deliver more consistent product year-round, reduce costs, and diminish negative environmental impacts.

Concerns do remain. Sectors will create new administrative costs (estimated at $60,000 to $150,000 per sector) and additional monitoring costs that the industry will have to fund. And although sectors can promote community-based fishing, consolidation could potentially lead to inequity and social tension. Income may be greater and more stable for some, while consolida- tion reduces employment overall.

Whether the industry can be maintained and strengthened depends on many factors, including banking support. Access to financing with reasonable terms is critical to enable smaller fishermen to purchase per- mits to expand their businesses and to let young fishermen enter the industry.

This Communities & Banking article is copyrighted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

Read the New England Fishing Communities publication.

Lubchenco holds firm on May 1 ‘catch share’ launch

The Obama administration's avowed plan to advance a fishing policy aimed at putting "a significant fraction" of the fishing captains in the northeast groundfishing fleet out of work is on track, according to testimony by captains.

"This is the face of consolidation; no one is going to make it," Gloucester Capt. Al Cattone said of the government's push through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to launch its "catch share" regulatory format here May 1.

"I got nothing; I'll be catching one third of the fish I caught previously," said Capt. Joe Orlando. "Because of the reallocation, we got screwed."

"I'm out of business," said Corrado Buccheri, who owns two boats.

"I'm in the 2 percent who are supposed to make it, and I'm not going to make it," said Richard Burgess, who owns 11 permits and four boats.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

OPINION: Hold off on international trade ban

I am a 25-year bluefin tuna fisherman, and I am confident that an international trade ban will be bad for the fish and US fishermen. We have abided by designated quotas for decades while European countries have regularly flouted theirs by several hundred percent. These same countries will likely excuse themselves from the ban, continue overfishing, and benefit from higher prices in Japan due to the absence of US fish.

The Globe editorial “To stop overfishing of tuna, ban foreign sales of bluefins’’ (March 1) fails to perceive the central problem of international bluefin management for the past two decades – that the United States has never elevated the issue of foreign overfishing of this shared resource past the level of the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Yet, the Globe states, “A ban would only succeed if the United States and other countries apply maximum diplomatic pressure on Japan to change course.’’ For years, industry and environmental nongovernmental organizations have been asking unsuccessfully for State Department-level pressure. Why would the United States start applying it now? Does our country care so little for fisheries that it will only step in when a species carries an “endangered’’ label?

Read the complete editorial at The Boston Globe.