Dueling Train Wrecks
by Laurie Schreiber

Rip Cunningham, regarding council efforts to speed sector development, asked NMFS, “I get the sense this decision has already been made. If we are not going to make it (2009 implementation deadline) then the service should tell us we are not going to make it, and we can react to that.” George Darcy, NMFS standing and Sue Murphy NMFS went into a huddle at the council table. The response was a lengthy maybe, maybe not. Fishermen's Voice photo

Despite some trepidation, the New England Fisheries Management Council’s Groundfish Oversight Committee decided, at their Jan. 17 meeting, to go with May 1, 2009 as the implementation date for ground fish sectors, rather than putting off implementation to 2010.Their recommendation will go to the full council at their February meeting.

Jackie O’Dell, executive director of the Northeast Seafood Coalition, said her organization supported 2009 implementation.” We need to make some decisions and stay focused and help the industry,” O’Dell told the committee. “It’s unbelievable how much debt fishermen have. I don’t know how guys are going to make it to tomorrow, let alone 2010. You’ve got to fix what’s broken.”

Some committee members expressed concern about NEFMC’s ability to keep sector development on track for 2009, given an earlier warning from the National Marine Fisheries Service that the federal agency would not be able to provide technical assistance due to its already heavy workload. But the critical concern regarding sector development was the difficulty of setting up an adequate monitoring system to ensure sectors kept to their total allowable catches (TAC). The sheer number of 19 proposed sectors, multiplied by the TAC on each of 19 ground fish stocks, appeared to some to pose a daunting monitoring challenge—with, potentially, a total of 361 TACs to keep track of.

Some council members said that many of the proposed sectors may have been put together simply as place-holders, as fishermen struggle to earn a living with the days-at-sea (DAS) system.

“Many in the industry were forced into coming up with sectors,” said one committee member. “How many fishermen really would support sectors?”And some fishermen expressed concern that they would be pushed out of the fishery if they stayed with the “common pool” DAS system and didn’t become part of a sector. NEFMC has received a petition from a significant number of fishermen who are not ready to buy into the sector system.

Committee member David Pierce said he is not confident that sector TACs can be effectively monitored yet; there will always be a temptation, he said, for fishermen to provide less than accurate reports of their catches. The DAS system, he said, would be an effective failsafe until better monitoring for TACs can be devised. Once a fishermen hits his DAS limit, he would be done fishing for the year.

“I want to see sectors implemented as soon as possible,” Pierce said, “but we have to be aware of the issues NMFS raised.”

But other committee and industry members said the industry came through when asked to think about sectors and should be given the chance to make the system work.

Wrestling with the decision at the oversight committee, to keep sectors on track for 2009 or concede to NMFS pressure for a 2010 delay, was evident. Jimmy Rhule, council member, N.C., said, “The reality is there is no compromise, the agency (NMFS) is managing this, if you don’t know that, you have your head up your ass.” Fishermen's Voice photo

“We told the industry a long time ago to think outside of the box,” said committee member David Preble. “And the industry responded to that, I think, magnificently.”

Preble and Maine Department of Marine Resources’ Terry Stockwell said the industry itself might not be ready by 2009, but that they should be given the opportunity to try. With further cuts in DAS expected, “sectors give greater flexibility and member Sally McGee.

Some committee members noted that many simply would not be able to make a living until 2010 on the DAS system.And they said that, with the sectors responsible for their own monitoring and enforcement, the amount of administrative work falling on the shoulders of NMFS would be far less than the current system.Vito Giacalone, of the Northeast Seafood Coalition, said that fishermen who have indicated they would sign on with 12 of the proposed sectors have determined they will hammer out a master plan which would interface management measures and analyze cumulative impacts

Currently, Giacalone said, NMFS is responsible for tracking hundreds of permits. With the sector system, he said, each sector would be responsible for its own plan, and would report to NMFS, relieving the agency of a significant administrative burden.The committee worked on specific details for the sector system. They voted to establish a universal sector exemption, which would exempt sectors from the DAS system, from rolling closures, and from seasonal closures.

Sectors will be governed by TACs, whereas the common pool is governed by DAS. There was speculation that, as the number of DAS continues to decline in an effort to boost ground fish stocks, more common pool fishermen would move to the sector system.

Monitoring within the sectors to ensure each stays within its TAC will be essential, the committee agreed.

The committee debated the concept of carrying over up to 10 percent of an unused TAC to the next fishing year. From NMFS, there was concern that a carryover would result in over fishing. Others said a carryover would reduce the level of discards, insofar as fishermen, not feeling as though they had to fish up all of their TAC in a year, would have some flexibility the following year to fish more selectively.

A representative from the Gulf of Maine Research Institute said her organization is working to help fishermen establish sectors. GOMRI will soon be hiring a monitoring assistance consultant, who will analyze NMFS’ current data reporting system and make recommendations for a new monitoring system. GOMRI is also organizing sector manager training sessions.

Frank Marachi, a fisherman from Scituate, Mass., said that, as it is now, ground fish management is broken, the industry has been working in good faith on the sector system, and it was worth it try to move ahead for 2009.

Still, Marachi called both old and new systems “dueling train wrecks.””Whose train wreck is more catastrophic?” he asked.