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MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford-Area Legislators Express Concerns Over Fishing Permit Leasing

May 11, 2022 โ€” The practice of allowing scallopers to lease out their fishing permits to others is coming under scrutiny by a pair of New Bedford-area legislators.

State Representatives Chris Markey and Bill Straus, who each represent portions of the city, are among the state reps who have written a letter to Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker โ€œurging caution regarding the practice of fishing permit leasing,โ€ according to a release.

The letter was also signed by Reps. Antonio Cabral, Chris Hendricks and Paul Schmid.

The release describes permit leasing as โ€œthe practice where scallop boats lease out their fishing days to other vessels rather than go out to sea themselves.โ€

Read the full story at WBSM

BILL STRAUS: Fishing industry could be endangered by planned wind turbines

January 4, 2019 โ€” Whatever the future for large scale off-shore wind farms in New England, New Bedford and its first in the nation fishing industry will feel the effects. Renewable energy from sources which include off-shore wind, are an undeniable part of our future. Itโ€™s a fair question though whether commercial fishing as it now exists in southern New England, will survive the installation of the largest and most extensive array of ocean based wind turbines in the world. The offshore wind lease areas in federal waters overlay some important fishing grounds and navigation transit areas for the commercial fishing fleet which sails from our coast.

The project furthest along in the leasing process is being pursued by Vineyard Wind, which hopes to have all its approvals by the summer of 2019 and begin construction later in the year. Critical decisions are about to made at the state and federal levels regarding the design, spacing and layout of the initial turbines which are planned for the waters near Marthaโ€™s Vineyard. This process involves the filing of reports which are public and provide opportunities for comment and reactions. The Draft Environmental Impact Report before the lead federal agency involved, BOEM, is open for public comment through Jan. 21, 2019 and there are parallel state agency filings as well. The public has a responsibility to participate in shaping the decisions that are going to be made and monitor the filings as they are announced.

Itโ€™s a lot to expect that the fishing industry alone can handle the needed public oversight. Off the Massachusetts and Rhode Island coast alone there are seven different lease areas under review totaling about 1 million acres; their ultimate design configuration will be the first test of how seriously marine resource, safety and navigation issues involving the wind towers will be handled by the government agencies involved. The first maps and plans to be approved are especially important because how those turbines are set up and reviewed by the government will likely set a precedent for how the process is run for the additional lease areas sought by other developers. In other words, thereโ€™s a lot at stake not only for the developers, but importantly, the public interest in preserving ocean habitat and the existing ocean-going economy of New England.

Read the opinion piece at the New Bedford Standard-Times

โ€˜The government is what created Carlos Rafaelโ€™

January 18, 2018 โ€” NEW BEDFORD, Mass. โ€” Bill Straus saw the writing on the wall years ago.

In 2009 โ€” eight years before Carlos Rafael went to prison โ€” the representative of Bristolโ€™s 10th District spoke out during the establishment of the current catch-share system in the Northeast fishery. And even with Rafael behind bars, Straus says the threat of another Codfather emerging is ever present.

โ€œThe risk is still there,โ€ Straus said. โ€œAnd thatโ€™s why what comes out of the different remedies is so important.โ€

NOAA defines catch shares as a portion of catch for a species that is allocated to individual fishermen or groups. Each holder of a catch share must stop fishing when his/her specific share of the quota is reached. Itโ€™s often also looked at as quota. Fishermen and organizations can buy and sell quota.

Like any industry, the largest organization buys the smaller entities, whether itโ€™s Disney purchasing Fox, AT&T attempting to acquire Time Warner or Rafael acquiring more quota.

โ€œCatch shares are complicated things; thereโ€™s pluses and minuses,โ€ SMAST Professor Dan Georgianna said. โ€œAlmost every study of catch shares shows decline in employment.โ€

Straus echoed that in a letter to the editor published in 2009 and in a conversation with The Standard-Times on Wednesday.

โ€œThe system encourages one owner or permit holder to gobble up the permits, and that it really works to that effect in a stressed fishery like New England groundfish,โ€ Straus said. โ€œWhat Rafael was able to do was approach people who had tiny bits of shares, and say, โ€˜Iโ€™ll just take it off your hands because you canโ€™t afford to be sending your boat off to get that tiny amount.โ€™โ€

In buying permits from across the Northeast, Rafael became one of the biggest organizations on the East Coast, not only catching the fish but also using Carlos Seafood Inc. as the landingโ€™s dealer, which masked the act of misreporting.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

MASS. STATE REP. BILL STRAUS: Baker has the right to change boardโ€™s makeup

June 9, 2016 โ€” To the editor:

On May 24, your paper published an article regarding the action of the Baker administration in replacing seven of the nine members of the stateโ€™s Marine Fisheries Advisory Commission.

All seven members whom Gov. Baker replaced were serving as hold overs whose statutory terms had long expired; five of them had begun on the panel as appointees of Republican governors going back to 1991.

I believe the new appointees reflect a diverse experience in fisheries and no one quoted in your article could credibly assert that the new members arenโ€™t qualified for this panel.

Read the full letter at the Gloucester Times

STATE REP. BILL STRAUS: Impact of the federal fisheries arrests in New Bedford

March 22, 2016 โ€” By now the local reaction to the waterfront arrests in New Bedford of one of the portโ€™s major figures has begun to shift to inevitable questions of the role of the federal government in the regulation of commercial fishing. Operating under federal law, the current groundfish system of control, the so-called โ€œcatch sharesโ€ plan, began with Amendment 16 in 2009 by vote of the New England Fishery Management Council. This intricate system of allocating by fish species what can be caught and landed by licensed federal permit holders has clearly changed the market economics for New England fishing; a rapid concentration of fish permit holders has led to what functions as a government-created near monopoly. The fact that a single owner now controls at least 40 New England groundfish permits means that one personโ€™s actions, whether driven by good or bad motives, reverberates through the regional economy.

We need to remember that this discussion is critical to the future of our port, and in my mind is distinct from the ultimate guilt or innocence of those charged to date. The presumption of innocence holds for anyone accused of a crime and they are entitled to a vigorous defense on their behalf. Regardless of the outcome of those proceedings, however, our portโ€™s future depends on candidly looking at whether there has been a detrimental role played by the governmentโ€™s regulations and how we got to this point. After all, the Port of New Bedford has a key role in the movement of seafood nationally; NOAA statistics for 2014 identify the portโ€™s product value for landings at $327 million overall of which $251 million is from scallops. Using a conservative economic multiplier, the value to our local economy is over $600 million a year. By comparison, Gloucesterโ€™s seafood dollar value is only one-seventh of ours at $46 million during the same period.

The public documents now available online growing out of the New Bedford prosecutions point to a pattern of deceptive behavior where catch share quotas for specific types of fish were allegedly misreported for private economic gain. Because this type of behavior is alleged to be overseen by someone who owns and controls the most permits, the local groundfish industry in New Bedford is therefore more vulnerable and susceptible. That is a departure from history, where a diverse port economy relied on the decisions of many stakeholders. I donโ€™t believe this concentration is a good thing for the overwhelming majority of those who look to and depend upon the seafood industry. Whatever is occurring at sea with respect to the science of habitat quality, species survival and sustainability is one thing; its quite another for a portโ€™s success or failure to be put in jeopardy as a result of a narrow band of ownership encouraged by the Federal regulations adopted to protect the fisheries.

Read the full opinion piece at The New Bedford Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: State floats new plan for fishing disaster money

September 5, 2015 โ€” The state Division of Marine Fisheries listened to those who wanted a wider distribution of $6.7 million in federal fisheries disaster money. At a meeting of the groundfish disaster aid working group in New Bedford on Friday, the agency laid out a plan where more than $6 million of the money would be used in direct aid to fishermen.

While an earlier proposal set a fairly high bar of 20,000 pounds of groundfish landings in any year from 2012 to 2014 to qualify for aid, the new plan would require 10,000 pounds of groundfish or have at least one trip in 2014 on which a vessel carried an observer.

Groundfish once were the bread and butter of New England fishermen, and include bottom-feeding species such as cod, haddock and flounders.

According to DMF analysis, 138 vessels would have qualified under the 20,000-pound criteria and 164 can receive aid under the reduced landings or observed trip scenarios. Only 10 of the 24 vessels in the Chatham-based Georges Bank Fixed Gear Sector would have qualified under the higher amount and 18 now qualify under the new plan. Claire Fitz-Gerald, manager of the sector, believes this number is closer to 22 or 23 based on her own calculations.

Read the full story from the Cape Cod Times

Read Rep. William Strausโ€™ letter to Massachusetts Gov. Charles Baker

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