Regulation Rankles Fishermen

Draft Regulation Rankles Fishermen, Conservationists
by Alan Pollock

CHATHAM — Federal regulators have announced a set of interim rules governing the commercial groundfish fishery which critics say could seriously undercut the industry without adequately addressing the problem of overfishing.

The draft rules proposed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) would take effect May 1, and govern commercially important species like cod, haddock and flounder. They are designed to govern the fishery until the New England Fishery Management Council finalizes its next major revision to the fishery management plan, known as Amendment 16.
Under the draft interim rules, regulators would expand the area of the Gulf of Maine where each day fished is counted as two days; there would also be a prohibition on keeping ocean pout, northern windowpane and southern New England winter flounder. Gillnetters and trawlers would be prohibited from an area of southern New England waters to further protect winter flounder. The reduction in days-at-sea already scheduled to go into place May 1 would also be retained.

The recreational fishing industry is not spared by the draft interim rules. Charter boats would have a trip limit of 10 codfish per angler, and a prohibition on retaining winter flounder. Party boats would also be subject to the same Gulf of Maine cod closure required of commercial fishermen.

The proposal’s 18 percent cut in fishing days is likely to have a severe impact on commercial fishermen. Federal officials included several proposals in the draft interim rules designed to soften that impact, including a continuation of the existing program that allows haddock fishing in the waters on the eastern portion of Georges Bank, and a slight decrease in the minimum legal size for haddock. There would also be an increase on the daily catch limit for white hake. Other changes would make it easier for fishermen to transfer or lease their limited access fishing permits.
The rules are driven by the 1976 Magnuson-Stevens Act, which mandates an end to overfishing by 2010. But environmentalists, including Peter Baker of the Pew Environment Group, say regulators are too focused on traditional, ineffective management techniques.

“That failed system, based on limiting both the number of days a fisherman can catch fish (days-at-sea) and the amount of fish that can be carried back to the dock, is decimating the traditional fishing fleet, reducing revenues and forcing many coastal businesses to close,” Baker said. The rules have not caused overfishing to end, and have not uniformly rebuilt fish stocks, he noted.
“This interim rule will not solve our problems, and may well cost many of the region’s fishermen their livelihoods,” Baker said.
Those concerns were echoed by the environmental group Earthjustice, which issued a press release last week complaining that the interim rules rely on “the same broken system” of regulating fisheries that have left most New England fish stocks severely depleted.

“This approach would not comply with the new provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens Act that Congress recently required beginning in 2010; an approach that calls for scientifically-based catch limits and accountability measures that ensure overfishing ends,” Earthjustice attorney Roger Fleming said.

Both groups argue that the time has come for the council to support the management strategy of “sector allocation,” which has been successfully tried in Chatham for hook-and-line fishermen and gillnetters. Under this strategy, groups of fishermen using the same gear type operate like harvesting co-ops, receiving a share of the total allowable catch of a species. Once a sector has landed all of its allocation, fishing ends; if that catch limit is based on strong science, Baker said, it will help stocks rebuild.
Sector-based management was advocated locally by the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen’s Association (CCCHFA), which helped reserve a sector for the Georges Bank cod fishery for hook-and-line fishermen. The sector is granted a yearly quota of cod by the government, up to 20 percent of the total catch, and the members determine how to harvest it. One goal of the sector plan is to reduce “derby fishing,” where all the permit holders rush out and flood the market with fish in a short time period. Based on the early success of the hook fishermen’s sector, the CCHFA helped orchestrate another Georges Bank cod sector for fixed-gear fishermen in 2006.

After the public comment period closes on Feb. 17; the commerce secretary is expected to put the interim rules in effect. The fishery management council is expected to complete work on Amendment 16 by May 1.




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