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