The federal government has credited Philip Powell with zero pounds of fish caught in a four-year period — even though his dealer records indicate he fished regularly, accumulating about 1.2 million pounds of mixed groundfish.
Because of the decision of the federal fishery management council to equate allocations in the new catch share management program with catch history — and the additional decision of the National Marine Fisheries Service to not fix mistakes this year — Powell thus finds himself denied the chance to catch about 120,000 pounds of fish in the next 12 months.
Calculating conservatively — using a mean price of a $1 per pound for the mixed stocks in the New England groundfishery — the government's records management glitch means Powell's earning capacity this year will be suppressed by about $120,000.
Neither the sector's proprietary software system, Fish Trax, nor the government's PTNS were tested and linked in the final hectic hours before the government's advanced approach to a less bureaucratic approach went online.
Indeed, fishermen were encouraged to give sectors — voluntary fishing cooperatives — a chance by reminding them how onerous it was to be regulated by the federal government.
"It was a cruel deception," says Cohan.
"The reporting requirements for Sectors are rather convoluted and complex, so we built FishTrax to simplify the process as much as possible and do most of the work for you," notes the Gloucester-based Northeast Seafood Coalition, which made a commitment to working with sectors, organized 12 of them for different gears and ports, and has been struggling to keep up with the waves of new regulations — like the 48-hour notification mandate for fishing trips.
"We had no say in the 48-hour notification for day boats," groused Powell. "It's absolutely absurd."
Read the complete story at the Gloucester Daily Times.