F R O M   T H E   C R O W E ’ S   N E S T

Junk It



The September 30, 2015 final vote on a bastardized groundfish Amendment 18, four years in the making, was a particularly desperate affair. The audio of this sausage-making session is preserved for posterity on NEFMC website audio. From extended efforts to define the meaning of “shelve,” to council member objections to the amendment, to the bigger industry players in a “strange bedfellows” alliance with NGO frontmen pleading for passage regardless of the shabby product, it was a 20-year low. Curiously, the October 2014 “cod emergency action” had some of the same management players on the field who worked the A18 passage.

Attempts by fishermen and Who Fishes Matters representatives to level the playing field may not trump the status quo, but their goal of shining the light of day on management makes sense. Amendment 18 started out as a means of limiting consolidation in the ground fishing industry. It ended with those most likely to benefit from consolidation being the beneficiaries. Holding permits and quota is an investment that will gush profits as stocks continue to recover, demand rises, competition is restricted and the industry becomes a takeover target.

Consolidation in the private sector is not new. The 1890 Sherman Anti-Trust Act, the “competition law,” is testament. If unfairly driving out competition in the private sector is illegal, how could it possibly not be so in a publicly-owned natural resource?

The deregulations of the Trans Pacific Partnership are coming. This year Thai (Thailand) Union bought Bumble Bee Seafoods, the owner of the Stinson’s Sardine Cannery in Prospect Harbor, Maine until 5 years ago. Thai Union, with sales of $3 billion in 2014, projects 2020 sales to top $8 billion. Local food sources and food security may be the canary in the coalmine when it comes to our national food security.

Opacity is the council’s malady. Member selection is in the political abstraction of the Dept. of Commerce and governors offices. Overriding council members are NMFS managers who hold their managers que cards close to the vest. Backing up federal management are federal scientists. The scientific method may hold sway in the laboratory, but politics can warp method under career pressure. NMFS has long been living under the threat of ENGO lawsuits. At the same time the council has for years seated several members funded by ENGOs with an end fishing agenda. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. If it can’t be fixed, junk it.