“Fishermen apprehensive over new regulations” |
| Fishermen apprehensive over new regulations Posted: 23 May 2010 08:01 PM PDT NARRAGANSETT — Through his second-floor window, Fred Mattera can see the fishing trawlers steaming under blue skies into the placid waters of Point Judith Pond after a long day at sea. It is a serene scene, but one that belies the turbulent waters the industry is sailing into, says Mattera, a boat owner and fisherman for 38 years. A radically different regulatory system began May 1 for groundfish such as cod and haddock, and Mattera fears it will force a third of Rhode Island's already diminished trawler fleet out of business. "It will look completely different down here in three to five years," he says. "I guarantee it." And that's coming from someone who supports many aspects of the new federal quota system. Plenty of other fishermen are irate over it and the reduced catch limits tied to it. They're fighting with the government and even among themselves. "It bothers me that we're being driven apart," says Joel Hovanesian, who's not on speaking terms with his own cousin, also a fisherman. The hard-hit Massachusetts seaports of Gloucester and New Bedford have filed lawsuits to halt the changes. And 13 members of Congress from the Northeast, including 3 members of Rhode Island's congressional delegation, met with Commerce Secretary Gary Locke in Washington earlier this month, to ask for relief for the fishing industry. The new rules are yet another in a long progression of regulatory measures that long ago brought an end to the days when fishermen used to catch what they wanted when they wanted. When cod and haddock populations off New England plummeted about 20 years ago — largely due to overfishing, scientists say — the federal government tried a variety of measures to rebuild their numbers. The New England Fishery Management Council shut down spawning grounds in some seasons, established catch limits, raised minimum fish sizes and required minimum mesh sizes for nets to let some fish escape. In later years, even more draconian steps were taken to protect these and other bottom-dwelling groundfish, including severe limits on how many days vessels could go to sea. In response, many Rhode Island fishermen turned increasingly to other species that don't swim near the ocean floor — squid, scup, fluke and whiting. But plenty still derive a substantial share of their livelihood from groundfish — possibly as much as a third of some vessels' income. Complaints about the inflexibility of past regulations led federal officials to adopt the system that began this month, which was pioneered in other countries and on the West Coast. It creates "individual transferable quotas" assigned to vessels based on their fishing history and what federal officials say can be caught without harming fish stocks. Boat owners can use their quotas or sell or trade them. Also new are regional groundfish "sectors," which are essentially collectives in which fishermen pool their quotas. "We are giving the fishermen a chance to do something they don't do naturally, and that's cooperate," said Mark Gibson, who, as the deputy chief of the state Department of Environmental Management, sits on the Fishery Management Council. "This is not going to be any magic solution. Is everyone going to survive? Probably not. We are trying the best thing out there we can." The complexity of the new regime has slowed its debut. For example, boats have to install computer software that provides up-to-the-minute reports on their trips. "I would normally have had quite a few groundfish in the first few weeks of May. I haven't landed a single one yet," James Fox, owner of Handrigan Seafood in Point Judith, said earlier this month. It's hard to find anyone particularly enthusiastic about the new regulations. Some accept them reluctantly because the days-at-sea program was so disliked; others are adamantly opposed. Some say the bigger problem isn't the new system but the reduced caps on how much groundfish can be caught in 2010. And if a sector reaches a limit on any one species, the boats must stop fishing for all groundfish. Some limits are so low — on pollock and certain kinds of flounder — that fishermen are calling them "choke" species that could quickly leave them tied to the dock. "We don't believe we can make money [on groundfish] this year," says Fox. "If boats start to go broke and processors and unloading facilities start to go broke … it doesn't matter how this [program] ends because they'll be gone." As he and two workers mend trawl nets spread out on the concrete floor of a building on the state pier, Jon Knight says he worries about the future. His business, Superior Trawl, is one of two of its kind in Point Judith. "Bottom line is you won't need two twine shops in Narragansett anymore," he says. "I'm not sure I'll survive the summer, honestly." Mattera, who owns the 84-foot dragger Travis & Natalia, is pleased that the new system provides some long-needed relief to the government's "intense micro-management" of fishermen. Sector fishermen can now work together, deciding who fishes for what and when, Mattera says. That can reduce fuel and other costs and prevent fish prices from plummeting when too much is landed at once. Also, without days-at-sea limits, fishermen won't feel pressed to fish when conditions are dangerous. And, says Mattera, crews won't be forced to throw as much fish away — long the bane of fishermen — to comply with limits on how much they may unload each trip. Mattera says some vessels received absurdly small quotas, or no quota at all, either because they concentrated on alternatives to groundfish in recent years or because they are younger fishermen who bought vessels without substantial groundfish histories. "It's not fair and equitable," he says. "Because they fished on other things, they get penalized." Hovanesian, who has been fishing for 36 years, takes issue with the very premise of the new system. "We are privatizing the resource. It's a common resource. It belongs to the people, not any individual or company or corporation, or a guy bigger than the other guy," he says. Hovanesian has a right to catch a relatively large number of haddock, but only small amounts of other species. "If we were still operating under the old groundfish plan, I would probably be fishing on groundfish, right now," he says one afternoon while towing for squid aboard his 75-foot dragger Excalibur. Hovanesian, Fox and others in the industry assert that fish populations are far more plentiful than the government's surveys indicate they are. Gibson, the fisheries manager, has heard these complaints for years. "It's as up-to-date science as there is," he says. But, he adds, there could probably be "some increase" in the catch limits "without too much risk." Still, he says, "You can only catch one of every five fish to have long-term sustainability." Gibson dismisses concerns that the new program will put people out of business. "The industry was downsizing regardless," he says. "Fishermen adapt or they don't survive. It's been going on for long time." |
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