Fishery in Crisis Presents Opportunity
by Ed Snell, F/V Rita B, Portland ME, NAMA Board of Directors
If you ask most people about the future generation of commercial groundfishing in New England they’ll ask, ‘What future generation?’ Despite the myth that no one is crazy enough to want to get into this industry, I consider myself part of the future of the New England commercial fishery. I bought my own boat and a low-value groundfish permit just a few years ago, when groundfish stocks showed modest, but definite signs of rebuilding. Since then, we’ve moved from seeing signs of a modest recovery to a fisheries disaster. This is not the fishery I hoped to inherit.
However, in the midst of a disaster I feel the only productive way forward is to find opportunity to affect real and meaningful change. So here are a few reforms that are necessary to create a fishery that is truly sustainable.
1. Closed Areas are key.
Groundfish in the Gulf of Maine were making a comeback during the 2000’s and it was due, in part, to the effectiveness of closed areas. Closed areas, when done right, allow fish to spawn, grow, and feed. Now, in spite of a fishery in crisis, we are opening up many closed areas before fully understanding the ecological costs. Amidst a declared fisheries crisis, the justification for opening closed areas is that industry needs to catch more fish. This is a terrible idea that will further harm an already fragile fishery. If anything, during a fisheries crisis, to facilitate recovery the New England Fisheries Management Council should expand closed areas.
2. A dead fish is not just a dead fish.
Proponents of the current Catch Share system argue that so long as the fleet does not exceed a total allowable catch (TAC) then, ecologically speaking, it does not matter when, where, or how it is caught. This approach causes as many problems as it claims to solve. To begin with, it assumes that the total stock biomass has been accurately assessed. Recent conflicting stock assessments demonstrate the self-evident truth that we have no practical way of assessing fish stocks accurately enough to assign an appropriate TAC. Furthermore, scientists and fishermen agree that there are many, even dozens, of cod sub-stocks. Scientists believe that these sub-stocks of fish not only travel together, but also spawn together, in very specific areas. Unfortunately, the current system of catch shares promotes a concentration of fishing effort wherever there is a concentration of fish, such as Stellwagen Bank. The Days at Sea system of management, although dysfunctional, mitigated this sort of decimation of these densely concentrated fish with daily trip limits.
3. Match Scale to Scale
The implementation of Catch Shares incentivized larger-scale vessels to fish in greater volume, in shorter amounts of time, and in inshore areas. For over 15 years fishermen who exclusively fished inshore with smaller, less aggressive operations sacrificed through austere catch limits and reduced time at sea, to rebuild these inshore stocks, only to now watch as larger offshore-vessels undo the progress for which the smaller operations sacrificed. This obtuse scale of fishing pressure applied to inshore areas is unsustainable and unacceptable. The scale of fishing must be matched to the scale of the ecosystem in order to rebuild the fish.
4. No More Single Species Management
If we are serious about saving the fish, cod for example, then we have to address the full scope of what is required. This means addressing what cod eat, what eats cod, as well as the non-fishing impacts that affect cod growth such as ocean acidification, climate change and pollution. Current management only looks at rebuilding stocks through a narrow species by species lens. Current fisheries management ignores complex interspecies interaction and outside influences. This must end if we are to actually rebuild stocks.
5. Access to Owner-operator and Independent Fishermen is Important
By design, Catch Share programs consolidate the fishing fleet. It remains critical that fishing access remain in the hands of independent people who have a vested interest in the long-term viability of the fishery. This model has worked for lobsters and it will work for Groundfish, too.
Solving these problems will require major policy changes. The Fleet Diversity Amendment 18 is one opportunity to reform and reshape the fishery that we all want to see. I invite anyone who cares about the future of the groundfish to support Amendment 18 and get involved in discussions to shape its outcome. The Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance is helping organize a series of community workshops to get fishermen involved in this process. Workshops will take place February 28 – March 6 in Rockport ME, Portsmouth NH, Gloucester MA, Barnstable MA, and Point Judith RI. Visit www.whofishesmatters.org for more details.