The New England Fishery Management Council on Wednesday took a first step toward limiting the quota that larger-scale boat owners can acquire when members met in Danvers and voted to approve what is known as a scoping document.
Describing it as a "pipe dream," New Bedford boat owner Carlos Rafael laughed when asked for his reaction to any suggestion that he might have to give up some quota if accumulation limits were enacted.
"How much are they going to give me for it?" he asked. "Or would they like me to give it for free to them for being a nice guy? Is the government going to buy it? Because the ones that need it can't buy it, and the banks won't give them any money."
According to a Northeast Fisheries Science Center report published last week, 20 percent of New England vessels accounted for 65 percent of the fishing industry's revenue in 2010. The fishing fleet is also shrinking. In New Bedford, for example, the number of active vessels declined from 91 in 2008 to 87 in 2009 to 71 in 2010, according to the report.
Whether the council envisions setting limits on future accumulation or will actually attempt to "divest" larger stakeholders of a portion of their current holdings is not clear. New Bedford's Rodney Avila, a council member, said he could not imagine how the council could take quota from those who have already acquired it.
The next step in this process will be to schedule a series of public hearings, according to Pat Fiorelli, the council's public affairs officer. "We'll go up and down the coast to cover the whole range of the groundfish species," she said, with eight or nine meetings likely. After gathering input from the public meetings, a groundfish committee will present its recommendations to the full council, which may then determine how to implement the ruling.
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