An Update On The New England Fishermen

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This was written by a friend of mine who is trying to stop what could be the end of the small, independent fisherman in New England.

    On May 1 of this year, new regulations were implemented in the NE groundfish fishery. The fishery, comprised of 19 different species, is at its highest levels in 30 years. Fishermen have been promised for years by NOAA and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) that when these stocks rebounded, they would be able to have greater access to fish them. However, the newest science demostrating the current levels of these stocks is not being implemented; instead NOAA/NMFS are not only holding back this science but also hiding it from the general public. They instead continue to base regulations off faulty, old data that was collected by a research vessel with well documented problems (i.e. the net it was using in order to catch fish for fish surveys was towed closed and off the bottom, and therefore did not give remotely accurate estimates of the true numbers of fish in the ocean). The new regulations, termed Amendment 16, include even more drastic cutbacks in the face of the highest fish stock levels in many years, and a refusal by NOAA/NMFS to base the plan on the newest science. Due to these severe cutbacks, as well as the way the new plan is managed, 50-75% of the New England commercial fishing fleet could disappear by the end of the summer. If there are so many fish, why the need for the job loss and loss of our cultural heritage??? This will devastate coastal communities.

    Amendment 16 is a radical departure from the former days at sea regulatory system. Rather than an effort controlled fishery, we are now being put into a quota fishery. Under days at sea, a vessel was issued so many days a year to fish, and there were limits of how much you could catch per day, per week, etc. Now, each individual fisherman is given a quota based on his previous catch history-usually of his worst years of the past 20 or so years. This has been not only a complete curency shift, but has rendered many investments by fishermen into days at sea worthless. Even more worrying is that the fishery is regulated by its lowest common denominator- also known as choke stocks. Each fisherman is given a certain allocation of each groundfish species. But once he reaches the limit for the specie with his lowest allocation, he must stop fishing for the entire year. For example, if he is allowed 50,000 lbs of cod for the entire year, but only 100 lbs of yellowtail flounder, once he catches his 100 lbs of yellowtail, he must stop fishing, regardless of if he still has 49,000 lbs of cod left to catch. This is not only unrealistic since these fish all swim in the same areas, but also devastating. Some fishermen have already been shut down for the entire year (think no paycheck for the rest of the year) only ONE WEEK into the program. Ports are virtually closing down and boats are staying tied to the dock. The reason for such low limits on choke stocks? FAULTY AND ABSENT NOAA/NMFS SCIENCE.
 
    The program has many other technical problems to detailed- but just as horrifying- to list here- it is desgined to fail. It is impossible to operate effectivley. Senators and Congressmen from ME to NY have been in uproar over it but have been met by rude indifference by NOAA and the Dept. of Commerce (which oversees NOAA). Why? Because the head of NOAA, Dr. Jane Lubchenco, used to be the chairwoman of Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). Her brother in law wrote the US treatise on Amendment 16 "catch share" fishery management for EDF. While she was chairwoman of EDF, there was a conference called the Milken Conference hosted by Michael Milken (ead of Lehman Bros when it went down and who has been banned from investing by the Securities and Trade Commission). At the conference, EDF pushed fish quotas in New England as the next hot commodity on Wall St- with a 400-1000% return on an ivestment. The discussion was moderated by Larry Band, now a paid consultant for EDF. See a pattern? Fishermen have already been forced to sell their permits due to Amendment 16 (we are talking 2 weeks into the program). Some people- funded with money from EDF- have already been buying them up from these disenfranchised fishermen. If you want to know why Dr Lubchenco refuses to correct science, fix the problems with Amendment 16, etc, follow the money.......It is much easier to buy fishing permits cheap when people are desperate to sell.............................
 
This Amendment needs to changed quickly or we will see the end of fishermen as small business owners.

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This page contains a single entry by Granny G published on May 17, 2010 8:04 PM.

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