March comes in like a lion for the local scalloping industry. Those fishing federal waters, more than three miles out, will see a change from their 400-pound per day limit as general category scallopers to an individual fishing quota based on their catch from 2000-2004 on March 1.
“Nobody will have enough to be viable,” said Provincetown-based scalloper Mary Beth DePoutiloff, “On March 1, general category boats will be fishing under catch shares for the first time – individual tradable quotas – meaning we can have 1,600 pounds. That’s equal to four days of fishing (under the old system), so I can fish for four days a year. A life raft costs $1,000. GPS is $100 a month so we basically are forced to sell or hang on and lose money. And it’s just not me. Everybody I talk to – nobody has enough catch to make a living.”
All five scallopers in Provincetown and everyone else on Cape Cod fall into the general category division, as far as federal regulations go. Their share of the total allowable catch will be cut from 10 percent to 5 percent (2,257,534 pounds) by Amendment 11 on March 1. Last year they could catch 4,590,024 pounds.
“Years back there were hundreds of boats on Cape Cod that maintained the right to go small boat (general) category opportunistic fishing,” said Tom Dempsey of Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen’s Association. “When the scalloping was good they’d hitch up a dredge and go. It’s been transformed so they need a full-time permit and that’s led to consolidation through allocation.”
Because the individual fishing quotas were set by taking the best year’s scallop catch during 2000-2004, reducing it if effort slacked off and partitioning it proportionally into 5 percent of the total catch, the allotments may not be enough. DePoutiloff said one Provincetown scalloper has already sold his permit. Part-time scallopers who caught less than 1,000 pounds a year during 2000-04 lost their allocations.
“In Maine, some landings weren’t reported because they went to state dealers so I never got credit for those,” DePoutiloff said.
Implementation of the quotas program was delayed until this March to give fishermen time to get their paperwork in order and appeal their allotments.
“A lot of fishermen have made a substantial investment in permits and quota to put together a full-time position,” Dempsey noted.
“The scallop fishery is a very complicated fishery," Dempsey said. "It’s not as simple as the big boats got all they wanted, now why can’t the small boat scallopers on Cape Cod not face consolidation.”
He noted the fishery council picked the more conservative alternative in November and now opted for a lesser restrictive approach. Since the total allowable catch was raised a bit, the small boats’ share also went up slightly.