FROM THE CROWE'S NEST
Slicing of the Pie
The Executive Director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, Patrice McCarron, may have said it best when she told lobstermen, “This is not your grandfather’s lobster fishery.” That was during the impact of whale regulations on trap ground lines.
Her comment however, was directed at more than whale regulations. It was calling attention both to a range of current and coming challenges to Maine’s most valuable fishery, and to the need for fishermen to get actively involved in that fishery beyond catching lobster.
Most fishermen understandably just want to fish. While technology has made modern fishing physically easier, practically everything else about it is more complicated. There is collective value in informed and interconnected commercial fishermen.
Shifting markets, value added, lobster health, effort control, and Canada, are just a few considerations. In addition, plans are being made outside all fisheries that will likely effect them.
In Washington, D.C., the Inter Agency Ocean Policy Task Force is being “fast tracked.” It was established to address a range of ocean management issues. The nugget in its agenda is spatial planning - who can do what and where within the 200 mile limit. There may be a long list of priorities, but oil, gas, and wind energy are probably near the top. Aquaculture has also been building government backed momentum that has yet to bloom on the coasts.
The New England Fisheries Management Council in reviewing Task Force documents at it’s January meeting noted a few “troubling things”. There was no mention of the Magnuson Stevens Act, fisheries councils, or fisheries in these documents.
A Task Force board of White House executive branch members will adjudicate. The NEFMC is not at the table. But, to the surprise of most council members, NMFS has been.
The Ocean Policy is intended to effect coastal marine areas to the high tide line, as well as estuaries and waterways. NMFS, has expressed hopes of getting jurisdiction in this part of the EEZ.
Executive orders, executive board, and fast track add up to an end run around the legislative process. Fisheries attorney Drew Minkiewicz is said to have called it, “The biggest law congress never passed.”
There is a lot to pay attention to that grandfather could not of imagined. Many parties want a big piece of the ocean pie. All fishermen will need to be alert and connected if they are to hang on to the piece they have always had.