March 10, 2013 — Fishermen say the small boat fleet is collapsing under the New England Fishery Management Council's sector management plan of regulating fisheries.
Implemented in 2010, the plan allots each fisherman a share of the total allowable catch of groundfish species like cod, haddock and flounder. That catch limit can change dramatically year by year; based on scientific analysis, the council set a 77 percent cut on the Gulf of Maine cod catch limit and a 61 percent cut for Georges Bank cod this year.
Some fishermen are cutting their losses and calling it quits. Randy Gauron of Hampton was a gill-net fisherman for around 20 years before he sold his boat, Captain Al, and his permit over a year ago.
Along with his permit went his fishing history, which dictates how many shares a fisherman has.
"It's getting too expensive for a small boat like mine," Gauron said. "I realized I had to get out, basically."
The cost of doing business
Those who worry about the future of the small boat fleet are concerned that the catch share system is leading to the privatization of access to fish, a public resource. Some believe the system is rigged against the small fishermen, and that regulators would prefer an easier-to-manage system with a few big players. Those who fish the hardest and fastest are rewarded under the catch share system, which bases allotments off of past performance. Multinational corporations and fishermen who have consolidated operations are buying up the shares of fishermen who have realized they can no longer make a living in the business.
Gauron said it became impossible to support his family, his crew and upkeep on his boat with the amount of revenue his fishing efforts generated. He said the system kept him in place, unable to improve his gear, or buy a bigger boat. As such, he also couldn't buy up someone else's shares.
Fishermen have to subsidize fishery management as well. When New Hampshire fishermen formed Northeast Fishery sectors 11 and 12, they hired a sector manager and they pay his salary, which they did not have to do under the old days-at-sea system, Gauron said.
The last straw for Gauron was when the government passed down the cost of on-boat observers to the fishermen. Gauron said there were times when he had observers on his boat four or five days in a row, and he knew he could not afford that added cost. Fishermen recently pleaded for help in a letter to Congress, and one of the issues cited was the cost of the mandated observers, estimated at about $6.7 million next year.
"In this area, I don't know how the average fisherman is going to survive," he said. "It's like extinction. They really hurt our local fishermen."
Read the full story at Seacoast Online