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Tiered Licensing Prompts Debate
by Laurie Schreiber
For many, the debate was muddied by proposals that tied a lower trap cap of 600 traps to the system.The Zone B Council met Aug. 5, drawing a sizeable crowd of about 30 people, in addition to council members. Only a couple of council members and a few people in the audience liked the idea of moving forward the concept of a tiered system. One of them was council chairman Jon Carter, long a proponent of tiered licensing as a way to proportionally reduce trap numbers, in the event of another trap reduction. “I want to see the full-time fishermen protected from taking the full hit,” said Carter. Council member David Horner said there’s not enough information to make a sound judgment. “I think there’s an abyss of details,” Horner said. “What’s the crisis that’s generating this answer?” Andy Mays wanted to know. “All we do is put out fires,” said Carter. “I would like to see something done before there’s a fire to put out.” A subcommittee of the Department of Marine Resources’ Lobster Advisory Council has been meeting since October 2008 to explore the concept of a tiered system. The subcommittee reviewed various methods – such as income based on tax records or sales tax cards, landings, tags purchases, and affidavits – that might be used to decide into which tier existing license holders would be placed. At their July 1 meeting, the LAC voted to bring the discussion to the zone councils for further input. The LAC has also been discussing the issue of the increasing level of effort. Despite the limited entry system, the sale of trap tags has increased substantially over the last decade. The effort reduction conversation comes about in response to at least some level of concern on the part of the industry about the amount of traps being fished in their area; the latest Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Com- mission stock assessment, which indicates that effort levels in the Gulf of Maine remain a significant concern; and continued concerns about vertical lines in relation to large whales. Many people said that, although the two issues are intertwined, they should be discussed separately. They wanted to know why three of the four proposals put forward by the LAC contained provisions to reduce the trap limit to 600 traps for full-time fishermen. They said that effort reduction should be addressed as a separate issue. In general, the feeling among fishermen was that the conservation community’s push to cut down on the number of endlines to protect whales will result in a push to cut down on trap numbers. But they didn’t want to start the debate by building in a lower trap cap themselves, especially because there might be significant attrition in trap numbers anyway, as older fishermen retire and the limited entry system keeps the number of new entrants down. The poor economy might put people out of business, too, one man said. One man said that, since the sinking groundline rule has only been on the books a few months, the industry should be given a chance to see whether that works. But others said the industry should be proactive in the face of the push by whale conservationists against vertical lines, especially now that the National Marine Fisheries Service has unveiled its timeline for vertical line risk reduction. NMFS plans to have a draft rule by spring of 2013 with the final rule in place by spring 2014. The Take Reduction Team is building a model that takes state and federal data on gear to overlay with whale data so that the team can concentrate more on area-specific measures. The team has put more emphasis on rope reduction, rather than large trap reductions. Data rolling in from the newly instituted mandatory dealer reporting system is beginning to show just how many people are fishing and how much gear they’re actually using. Not everyone with a license is actually fishing, or they’re not fishing a lot. For 2008, dealers reported purchasing 66.1 million pounds of lobster. Of the 6,492 commercial lobster license holders, 32 percent had not reported activity; 68 percent had at least 1 pound reported, and 42 percent landed less than 1,000 pounds. Only 20 percent of license holders landed greater than 20,000 pounds. There are plenty of people with tags who are not landing many lobsters, the LAC said. The DMR is working with the National Marine Fisheries Service to include new estimates of latent effort based on dealer and harvester reporting data, which is expected to give a more accurate picture of Maine’s fishing effort. NMFS’ current model only builds in a small amount of latent effort and therefore overestimates the amount of gear in the water, and would potentially also overestimate how much gear should be taken out to achieve risk reduction for whales. To further the accuracy of the modeling process, the DMR will also be sending out a survey on endline use. Although the trap reduction conversation wasn’t meant to tie up the tiered license concept, it was important to think about, said DMR Commissioner George Lapointe. The issue isn’t just whales and fishing, he said. Other industries around the country have faced conservation issues. “People in this country like the Endangered Species Act,” said Lapointe. Lapointe said that, under the current system, projections show that a 30 percent reduction in the number of tags will take 25 to 30 years, which is not helpful for whales. In a July 9 memo to lobster fishermen, Lapointe put forward four proposals for tiered licensing systems designed to reduce effort in an equitable manner. “A tiered license system is intended to address the concern that any future trap reductions don’t just impact those who rely largely on lobstering for their income (for example, individuals fishing 800 traps are forced to reduce, while other individuals can continue to build up),” the memo says. “Tiered license systems are also viewed as a way to address latent effort in the fishery (licenses and tags not currently being used) that could become active. A tiered license system would result in different trap limits for license holders, based on their past participation in the fishery.” Two proposals come from the LAC subcommittee. Proposal A establishes Tier A for license holders with no landings, which would make them eligible for up to 50 tags; Tier B for 1-9,999 pounds, eligible for up to 400 tags; and Tier C for 10,000 pounds and over, eligible’s for up to 800 tags. Tier C would have additional responsibilities such as 100 percent harvester reporting and increased license and/or tag fees. Proposal B is an alternative to a tiered system. It would freeze all licenses issued three years prior to enactment at current tag levels for five years; allow licenses issued less than three years prior to enactment and after to continue to build to the zone limit; and, during the freeze, develop a plan for proportional reduction of 25 percent for all license holders. The DMR has two proposals. Proposal C would create a tiered system as described in Proposal A, but would reduce the trap limit for Tier B from 400 to 300 and the trap limit for Tier C from 800 to 600, over a period of five years. Proposal D would create a simplified, two-tier system. Individuals with no landings would be eligible for 50 tags. Individuals with landings would be eligible for 800 tags; that number would be reduced to 600 over a period of five years. All new entrants can only build to 600. The Lobster Advisory Council will consider whether to move forward or not on tiered licensing, at their next meeting. In other business, Lapointe advised fishermen that they should keep tabs on discussions by the Governor’s Ocean Energy Task Force, which was created in November 2008 and has been meeting monthly to discuss how to move ocean renewable energy projects forward in the Gulf of Maine, and is looking at a pilot project to test the viability of the gulf’s vast wind resource. For fishermen, said Lapointe, pertinent questions include whether they would be allowed to fish within the test areas, and whether there is any potential for fishermen to get involved. The test sites will be in state waters. “You should pay attention to the issue over the next few years,” Lapointe said. |
