FROM THE CROWE’S NEST

Reality Can Set In

With the ground line issue, if not over, at least a done deal, the anticipated onset of vertical lines has replaced it. Discussions have begun and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has set a timetable for getting some kind of regulation in place. A lot of the opposition to it sounds like the opposition over ground lines.

But the train has left the station on this, and where it’s going no one can say. The technical difficulty of dealing with vertical lines makes the ground line problem seem easy in retrospect. There are more vertical lines. Breakaways are the only technical solution on the horizon, with ghost traps already a problem. While fishing only singles might have eliminated ground lines, fishing without vertical lines could eliminate lobster fishing.

Ten years of wrangling over groundlines didn’t result in a technical solution that fully satisfied either fishermen or the groups pushing the feds on entanglements. Ultimately what happened was that reality set in.

The issue is not about saving the right whale, it’s about responding to a lawsuit regarding whale entanglement. There are much more direct threats to the whales, but they are not a part of the lawsuit.

At this point there is no vertical line solution that will appease both fishermen and the feds. Possible solutions are currently in the speculative “pie in the sky” stage. They range from humorous to laughable. Fishermen might say they are frightening in light of the fact that after 10 years the only technical solution to getting legally useable groundline is a product that sinks or floats unpredictably, but is guaranteed to wear prematurely. Now the industry has just five years to deal with vertical lines.

However, the learning curve in this next round has been flattened out some for both sides. Fishermen saw that lobstering did not end over the groundline issue, the whale groups saw that they could not put all lobstermen out of business, although some went out. Both sides now know efforts to negotiate compromise are a part of the solution. That effort for lobstermen was massive and will be massive over vertical lines if they are to defend against more negative outcomes.

Fishermen’s participation, organizing efforts, and determination are what happen before reason and reality can set in.