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The money, he said, would be used not to bail out fishermen but create means to keep them fishing, such as funding the lease or transfer of Days At Sea (DAS) into Maine.
“Getting vessels to land in Maine is a high priority,” Lapointe said.
At a loss
Vincent Balzano of Saco, a third-generation fisherman who fishes out of Portland and is a member of the task force, said he’s probably doing better than most.
“But most guys are probably not doing well,” he said. “The reduction is severe and we have to manage a few days over the course of a year. It’s a learning curve.”
“It’s pretty quiet on the water,” Craig Pendleton, also of Saco and head of the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance, said mid-May.
The new season began May 1, the date of implementation of new regulations which divided fishing effort into Category A or immediately useable days-at-sea (DAS); regular and reserve B DAS, to be used in special access programs; and C DAS, the difference between vessel’s 2001 allocation and the sum of its A and B days.
The number of active groundfish permits in Maine has plummeted over the past decade from 202 to about 140 today. Downeast groundfish vessels are mostly gone; the state estimates there are fewer than 10 active groundfish permits; others say there are two.
People are angry, said Pendleton.
“They’re despondent,” he said. “There’s a lot of despair. It’s hard to get people to think creatively.”
Fishermen and processors in the Portland area are at a loss, said Portland Fish Exchange manager Hank Soule.
The exchange averaged 350,000 pounds a week a year ago, said Soule.
This compares with 200,000 pounds shortly after this season opened and just breaking 100,000 pounds a week later. May 2003 pulled in 1.8 million pounds of fish, while May 2004 is on track for only 1.2 million pounds.
“This is not unexpected, but it’s still unpleasant,” Soule said.
May is typically a month when huge rolling and seasonal closures keep fishermen tied up anyway. Those who venture out are narrowly confined, more so with Amendment 13’s new habitat closures.
Usually, said Pendleton, there’s one good trip at the beginning of the month, then folks stay home until June.
Given all that, things were still unusually quiet.
“I think some of the fishermen would be going out if it weren’t for the reduced days-at-sea allocation,” Soule said.
“The people I’m talking with are trying to figure out what they’re going to do,” Pendleton said. “Some people are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on leasing and racking up debt. But I’m concerned, now that Oceana (the Washington, D.C.-based conservation organization) has filed, and after watching the judge tweak the settlement the first time, that she’ll say, “You had your chance with Amendment 13.”
Quotas expected
The man who runs Pendleton’s boat, Mike Stinchfield, said he might try to lease out his remaining 31 days. He had a full complement of 88 days a year ago.
Stinchfield started out 27 years ago just out of high school, as a deckhand in Maryland.
“I got to the point where I own my own boat,” he said. “And now the carpet’s slowly getting pulled out from under me.”
Stinchfield has run Pendleton’s boat for 10 years. He manages Pendleton’s shoreside operation. And he fishes his own smaller 45-footer during the summer and is accustomed to using his DAS then. After he sold his old boat and bought new steel-hulled craft, he rigged a year ago to scallop. That ended abruptly when the engine broke down, an $8,000 cost, at a time when sources of income had disappeared. The breakdown cost him most of the shrimp season, too. He intended to go out this May, but was informed by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) scalloping is banned from the groundfish closures.
“It’s put me between a rock and a hard place,” he said. “I invested a lot of money in my business. Now I’m hanging on by a thread. I’m living check to check again and I don’t like that.”
At this point, Stinchfield said, he might lease his DAS to Pendleton or someone else. The problem is he’ll lose his catch history for the term of the lease. Many fishermen believe the fishery will end up on a quota system, and being able to demonstrate catch history is crucial in the allocation process.
Stinchfield has had experience with the DAS system in the mid-Atlantic surf clam industry. The system counted days and then hours before it was deemed a failure and the industry was put on quotas.
Quotas for surf clams are not onerous, Stinchfield said, because the fishery is selective with minimal bycatch.
Selectivity is tricky with groundfish.
“People are against quotas because you can’t select exactly one kind of fish,” he said. “In any tow, I collect 10 to 14 species.”
The decision to lease will depend on what someone is willing to pay, Stinchfield said. He estimates he could probably get $1,000 per day for a total of $31,000, half of last year’s gross. A couple of fishermen said some lessors might offset lease costs by charging crews.
“In the end, the crew gets a little less money, but the boat will at least fish,” Stinchfield said.
Even combining days won’t be enough to run the operation. Stinchfield said he might take additional offers he’s received to run other boats.
“This industry changes everything so frequently that nobody knows what to do,” Stinchfield said. “The culture has changed so much now. I used to be looked at as a hard-working individual. Now I’m looked at as a threat to the environment. People are being told only one side of the story.”
Framework 40
It’s important to keep people working, even if only to break even, Pendleton said, in order to keep the industry alive for the next few years.
Maine’s groundfishing industry is split between the haves to the west and the have-nots in the east.
Up to May 1, groundfishermen in the Portland area made a decent living by strategically using their allotment of fishing days. The small-boat fleet Down East has virtually disappeared due to poor stock conditions and the fleet’s inability to travel to productive offshore grounds.
Strategy comes into play in an industry initiative that became part of Amendment 13 and is now being pursued in the framework adjustment process. The initiative recategorizes DAS so the number cut could come back into play through special access programs (SAP) targeting only healthy stocks.
But the innovative approach is widely expected to benefit only larger boats closer to productive grounds, including Massachusetts, but only going as far as the Portland area.
Although NMFS failed to include all but one of the proposed SAPs in the amendment, the New England Fisheries Management Council (NEFMC) is pursuing the concept in Framework 40A.
The action NEFMC recently approved to go to NMFS adopted a Category B (regular) DAS pilot program for four quarters, from November 2004 through October 2005.
The program allots 1,000 B DAS per quarter and adopts quotas on incidental catch of stocks of concern caught while using B DAS.
The program will leave it up to fishermen to figure out how to avoid stocks of concern, said NEFMC analyst Tom Nies. Observer coverage will be essential, he said.
“Any additional access and more time on the water will help,” said Balzano. “The question is when are we going to see that?”
Soule said the program will help southern New England but not necessarily Maine.
“There might be an opportunity for perch, maybe pollock,” he said. “But it will take a lot of research to figure out how to conduct the fishery with minimal bycatch. It will take time.”
Framework 40A also adopted two haddock SAPS in Closed Areas I and II, and a measure that will allow vessels to fish on much of Georges Bank on the same trip.
Implementation is expected before the end of the year.
Framework 40B will consider several other SAPs, a revision of conservation taxes in the lease and transfer process, a proposed conversion of 10 C days to B reserve for permits that didn’t get any A or B regular days, and the DAS baseline, which many fishermen have said has been underestimated.
This month, Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) voiced concern regarding the late implementation of the SAPs and the amendment’s failure to ensure future access for fishermen with latent effort.
The amendment, Snowe said, penalizes Maine fishermen who assisted the recovery of groundfish stocks by harvesting other species.
“Many fishermen say the current B Day plans would only allow fishermen to target species that are now found on Georges Bank, which limits opportunity for small boat, inshore fishermen,” she said.
“These measures will fundamentally change the face of our fishing communities and alter, permanently, a valued way of life for many fishermen, unless the negative impacts of Amendment 13 are lessened,” Snowe said.
Governor’s task force
Operating under conditions clear as mud, the state’s task force is crafting recommendations to help remaining fishermen get by.
The task force is “considering anything we possibly can, and that’s limited,” Soule said. “Some things would solve Maine’s Amendment 13 problems overnight, but there’s no money.”
“A lot of the problem is that nobody knows where this is going,” Balzano said. “We have a lot of people risking capital to lease days. People are taking risks without knowing what’s going to happen.”
The task force plans to finalize its report by summer, said chairman Jill Goldthwait.
Earlier this year, the group discussed ways to keep Maine’s remaining fleet from moving to Massachusetts, retain the shoreside infrastructure, and help inactive boats re-enter a rebuilt fishery.
Among considerations was a proposal to allow groundfishermen to take up to 500 lobsters; cost relief measures; the elimination of steam time from the tabulation of DAS; affordable health insurance for fishermen; and the disappearance of shoreside services.
Future access for Down East fishermen is also a top priority, said Goldthwait.
“We recognize that a lot of people in the east have lost access to the fishery, and I think it’s fair to say it’s on our minds,” she said.
Landing lobsters will not be supported by the lobster industry, Maine Lobstermen’s Association CEO Pat White said.
Down East plan
A Down East group continues work on its own proposal, a version of which was presented in an early draft of Amendment 13.
The latest version, said Ted Ames, a former Stonington groundfisherman and leading industry voice, incorporates monitoring and research components, with a consortium of people who can gather and share information in a comprehensive approach. The idea incorporates a localized management approach similar to the lobster zone system, in which all stakeholders play a role.
“My concern is that Amendment 13, as it’s structured, means basically the elimination of groundfishing from the state of Maine,” said Ames. “My immediate concern is small- and now medium-size boats have literally been pushed out of business, and the resource has been seriously depleted.”
Ames said the group was not ready to present the plan publicly. But he shared thoughts on its direction.
The group, he said, includes fishermen, environmentalists, university scientists and large fishing organizations looking closely at management as a means for bringing back stocks and evolving a sustainable fishery in which communities which have traditionally benefited from the fishery can continue to take part in it with an eye toward controlling the scale of their activities.
The plan covers from Penobscot Bay east, a significant area where stocks are slow to rebuild. Down East fishermen have shown considerable interest, said Ames.
In a presentation to the MLA in April, Ames, Dana Rice and University of Maine scientist Jim Wilson said the plan is premised on the view that the groundfish resource is comprised of local stocks and should be under the stewardship of local users.
The plan’s outline holds that fishermen would be tied to specific areas; a fisherman would be part of an area fishery and not be just a lobsterman or a groundfisherman or shrimper. Instead, they would be part of a multi-species, area-specific fishery, not dependent on a single species.
The plan is intended to improve on the current assessment process. Currently, they said, fish are averaged out for the entire Gulf of Maine. The Down East plan is designed to detect the status of small stocks in distinct areas. A study performed by Ames has determined there are three sub-populations, which could be tended through area management.
Measures to protect stocks, they said, might include gear restrictions, trip limits and habitat protection; there would be an initial moratorium on fishing for three years. The moratorium would be used to establish a scientific baseline. A council would be created to decide how, when and where to fish.
“It’s important to the state to rebuild stocks in the eastern Gulf of Maine and also to re-introduce diversity into our coastal fishery,” Ames said. “Only one fishery remains in eastern Maine, and that’s lobster. And that’s very precarious. So it becomes very important to develop some diversity.
“The key,” said Ames, “is that eastern Maine is particularly dependent on its natural resources, and eastern Maine has basically lost or is losing access to all the federal fisheries. We’re saying maybe it’s time to reverse this process.”
Lapointe agreed rebuilding Down East Maine’s small-scale fishery is worth working on.
The Down East plan, Lapointe said, grapples with the lack of fish and the question ‘when stocks rebuild, who gets to fish them?’
“Do the fish just go to the survivors, or do we have a strong and diverse fleet and try to re-establish diversity?” Lapointe asked.
New lawsuit
The new regulations no sooner went into effect than conservationists once again filed suit against the NMFS.
Oceana charges Amendment 13 fails to protect essential habitat from bottom trawls and scallop dredges as required by the Sustainable Fisheries Act.
Fishermen think this latest move will be the end of Maine’s groundfishery. The industry, they said, will end up on quotas that will knock out all but the biggest boats and consolidate the industry into corporate-style big business.
Remaining boats will head to Massachusetts, said NEFMC member and Gouldsboro seafood dealer, Dana Rice.
“It’s millions and millions of dollars to the Maine economy that we won’t get,” Rice said.
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