NEW BEDFORD – July 25, 2010 – Representatives from the Environmental Defense Fund came to New Bedford last week, at the invitation of The Standard-Times, to discuss the new rules governing the groundfishing industry. The new regulatory system, known as sector management or catch shares, took effect on May 1.
The EDF, a nonprofit group founded in 1967, has become a strong advocate for the controversial new system that some in the industry claim will force smaller fishermen out of business.
In a meeting with the newspaper's editorial board, Sally McGee, New England policy director for the EDF's oceans program, who also serves on the New England Fisheries Management Council, said that the shift to a catch share system, in which groups of fishermen band together into "sectors" to share fishing quotas, became necessary because of mandatory catch limits imposed by the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the federal legislation governing U.S. fisheries.
The system does not make good economic sense to its opponents in the fishing industry. Criticism of the catch share system has been vocal, stemming principally from fears among fishermen that it will lead to consolidation within the industry and force many smaller boats out of business as a result of insufficient quotas.
Fishermen also maintain that the methods employed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to allocate fishing quotas to individual boat owners were flawed, a view shared by Gov. Deval Patrick. In a July 16 letter to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke, Patrick asked for an increase in catch limits, saying that the "history for allocations has left some smaller-boat fishermen with an unfair share of the catch."
McGee said the fisheries council is looking to address these issues by refining some elements of the sector program, first by establishing "consolidation caps" to limit the percentage of the fishery that an individual can hold.
"That needs to be in place quickly," McGee said. "A lot of things need to be addressed," she added, "but that is not a signal that we rushed ahead with this. This was three years in the works. You can't anticipate every eventuality."
To help smaller operators stay in business, permit banks are a viable option, she suggested. Permit banks, already in place in Maine, Gloucester and Cape Cod, acquire groundfish permits and then lease them to fishermen while stocks recover, she said. "These can allow people who may be marginal to stay in if they need to purchase or lease more quota."
However, consolidation among the groundfish fleet is nothing new, according to Richard Allen, a former fisherman who now is an EDF consultant. "From 1995 until now we've lost X number of boats, and that's not a catch share issue. We just had far too many boats with too much capacity for the stocks. The fleet was consolidating under the days-at-sea rules and we're going to continue to see that," he said. "Those who protest against catch shares and catch limits very seldom have an alternative approach to fisheries management."
Frank Mirarchi, a Scituate fisherman who runs a 55-foot day boat with his son, was invited to the meeting by EDF staffers. Mirarchi said he knew several fishermen who now own more than one boat. "A lot of these people don't want to maintain three boats," he said. "In general, the aging of the fleet is a problem. These people would like to have one boat, to run their business more efficiently. But if it gets to a level where jobs are lost or the volume of business is diminished, then consolidation is not such a good thing. Where that level is I don't know."
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