The New England Fishery Management Council has removed a powerful disincentive for fishermen who have chosen to remain outside the catch share system and instead fish independently in the common pool next year.
But the margin of the vote Wednesday night — against running the fishing clock at double time against the common poolers for time spent on the inshore grounds — was most narrow, with the recommendation from the council’s Groundfish Committee rejected 8-7 with one abstention.
Moreover, the council has given Patricia Kurkul, the National Marine Fisheries Service’s regional administrator, nearly limitless authority to step in to change the fishing rules as she sees fit at any time after midnight on May 1, the starting date of the fishing year that will debut a partial catch share regulatory system with fishermen working in voluntary fishing cooperatives known as sectors.
Vito Giacalone, a founder of the Northeast Seafood Coalition and an innovative force in the organization of 13 sectors, said yesterday that giving Kurkul the authority to tighten the rules next year would encourage the derby the council should be trying to avoid.
In addition, Giacalone said the differential counting "feels punitive."
Council member Jim Odlin, a Maine boat owner, agreed.
"I’m wondering if we’re going too far, way too far," he said.
Giacalone said he favored tightening up limits on cod and pollock.
"That’s all we were looking to achieve," he said. "I hope the 2-1 counting and the mid-season authority (to change the rules) are removed."
Nies, the council’s executive director, also advised that giving Kurkul the authority to change the rules would encourage the derby they were seeking to prevent.
Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.