HARPWELL, MAINE [seafoodnews.com] April 19 2011 โ The sustainable Harvest Sector, one of seventeen New England groundfish sectors, has seen improvements over the first year of the catch share /sector system. According to Hank Soule, Manager of the Sustainable Harvest Sector one year after widespread adoption of a new management tool for the New England groundfishery, the nascent 'sector' system is making progress toward achieving important conservation and economic objectives. Regulatory discards have fallen and catches of overexploited stocks have dropped. At the same time, catches of underutilized stocks have risen, and the allocation trading mechanism has allowed some fishermen to extend their season.
'Sectors' are cooperatives of fishermen who pool groundfish catch rights and accept responsibility for ensuring their sector does not exceed its total allocation of any one of the sixteen managed stocks. In return, the sector is freed from the alternative 'days at sea' regime, which restricts the number of days fishermen may spend harvesting groundfish, as well as the amount of fish than can be landed daily.
Fishermen choose to operate under one of the two management regimes. Although both were, as required by law, expected to reduce catches of overexploited stocks, many fishermen believe working under the strict catch limits of the sector system was more financially viable than accepting another reduction in days-at-sea. Average per-vessel days-at-sea have been cut from 176 per year in 1994 to just 24 today.
'Discards have plummeted under sectors,' said Hank Soule. Fish are sometimes discarded for regulatory or market reasons, but sector vessels are prohibited from the practice. 'In the first year of operation, our sector's discards have dropped at least in half.'
'Because all catches count against our allocation, the system encourages me to steer clear of the weakest stocks,' said fisherman Terry Alexander.
According to preliminary National Marine Fisheries Service figures, catch of several vulnerable species has dropped by over one third. At the same time, catches of two chronically underutilized stocks โ redfish and Georges Bank haddock โ have increased, largely because sector vessels, freed from days-at-sea limits, are permitted to spend more time targeting them Significant quantities of allocation have been traded, allowing individual fishermen to continue harvesting.
'Without trading, nearly every vessel in our sector would have been forced to stop fishing prematurely,' Soule explained.
Sectors have traded millions of pounds of allocation to and from other fishermen. 'We've been regularly moving allocations of some fish, traditionally caught by the inshore fleet, to the Gloucester-based sectors, and in return they sent us allocations they were unlikely to use.'
The sector system does have shortcomings. Sector fishermen absorb significant monitoring and management costs which are captured through membership fees. And New England's ongoing fleet consolidation has continued under sectors.
'Nearly 25% of the boats we expected to see fish decided instead to wait the first year out,' said Soule. The contraction was spread among all vessel sizes.
'But a few of those may be coming off the sidelines next year, and we do have one brand new fisherman who expects to acquire most of his allocation by leasing it from others.'
'Fleet contraction was inevitable and expected,' said vessel owner Frank Patania of Boston MA. Patania elected to keep one of his sector vessels out of the groundfishery this year.
'The system allows rational consolidation that provides assured value to all allocation holders. As catch limits are raised in the future, there may be more opportunity for additional vessels to enter the fishery.'
In spite of these shortcomings, the Sustainable Harvest Sector believes the sector regime remains preferable to the days-at-sea management alternative. No member chose to switch systems for the upcoming fishing year.
'It costs me money to manage the sector and lease allocation,' Alexander said. 'But that extra expense doesn't approach my loss of income if I had been forced to take another cut in days at sea. For now, sectors are my best option.'
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