Area Management Stalled
by Laurie Schreiber
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Area management of groundfish was among the options postponed for consideration by the New England Fishery Management Council, at the June 19-21 meeting in Portland. Also delayed for consideration for a future amendment were individual transferable quotas, days-at-sea performance system, a catch-based points system, and party-charter limited entry.
In their consideration of Amendment 16 to the Groundfish Management Plan, NEFMC heard from Maine Senator Dennis Damon, who submitted a resolution from the Maine Legislature petitioning NEFMC to support area management.
In noting that active federal groundfish permits in Maine declined 45 percent from 1996 to 2006, from 165 to 91, the resolution says that DAS has not achieved goals to rebuild the fishery and local economies, and says that area management offers to best promise.
A number of council members were dismayed with the prospect of putting off proposals they had solicited for Amendment 16. Rather than putting off the proposals indefinitely, they said they plan to consider them in Amendment 17, which they referred to as an allocation amendment.
David Goethel said the allocation issues will mean a fundamental change in the way the fishery is managed, with huge implications for fishermen.
In Amendment 16, they said, they needed to focus on modifications to the existing DAS program and on new sector proposals.“I don’t want to find ourselves bogged down,” said David Pierce.
Nineteen sector proposals were submitted to NEFMC, for various areas and gear types. The Gulf of Maine Research Institute offered its help to NEFMC in developing sector plans. With hundreds of boats and 19 species to consider, the workload will be considerable, said NEFMC director Paul Howard.
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Over 20 Large purse seiners, all 150 feet, or longer, sit rusting on the beach in Valdivia, Chile after the collapse of small pelagic fisheries off the country’s north central coast. Vessels owners made millions, depreciated their capital and walked away smiling, while whales, wild fisheries, and the small fishing communities that depended on healthy stocks of small pelagic species, took it on the chin. It’s happened elsewhere, some fear it will happen in the Gulf of Maine, undermining groundfish recovery and the lobster fishery. Paul Molymeaux photo |
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Props
by Mike Crowe
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The propeller, in theory, realizes the marine engine’s potential. In any particular boat there is hull design, weight, balance, load, engine, use, etc., etc., to also consider. But, what the engine is capable of is determined by how the prop brings the engine’s power to the water. How a propeller works in that fluid medium is its own separate science department within marine engineering.
Getting a 40’ boat up on the water at a smooth 40 mph, pretty effectively blurs the propeller’s humble beginning as a motorized oar. The earliest props were shaped like screws, and some still are, while others retained some of the oar shape and motion in the water.
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| Not a lot of people give a lot of thought to the propeller on their boat. But it takes a lot of thought to get the right prop on any particular boat. Cavitation, seen in this photograph, is low pressure turbulence around higher speed propellers. It creates a water jet that erodes the propeller blades. Dr. S.A. Kinnas photo |
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