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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 34 Number 2
October 2006
East Coast Pelagic Association disbands
CAMDEN, ME – The East Coast Pelagic Association (ECPA), which represented herring and mackerel midwater trawlers from Maine to New Jersey, is no more. On Aug. 31, the association’s five-member board of directors voted unanimously to dissolve the group.
Board members concluded that ECPA had accomplished its primary goal of promoting “a rationale approach to capacity issues” once Amendment 1 to the federal herring plan had been completed.
The amendment, which will usher in a limited-access program next year for herring, was developed by the New England Fishery Management Council and submitted to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), where it was under review in mid-September.
“People will continue to work on issues of common interest. It’ll just be in an informal way,” said Mary Beth Tooley, ECPA’s executive director, who will remain onboard for a short time to wrap up loose ends and outstanding research contracts.
ECPA officially began operating as a trade association in 2002, but the seed for the group was planted back in 1999 when Tooley, with the help of others, began pulling together what was loosely referred to as a “limited-access working group,” which staunchly promoted limiting capacity in the herring fishery.
An incorporating member of ECPA herself, Tooley became its executive director in March 2003.
Haddock a success
ECPA chalked up numerous accomplishments during its time that went far beyond its primary mission of achieving limited-access.
“We were very successful at dealing with the haddock bycatch issue,” said Tooley.
In 2004, herring midwater trawlers began encountering haddock from the enormous 2003 year class. Not only did ECPA work with managers to obtain a small bycatch allowance for herring fishermen, it pioneered gear modifications that are now being used and further tested at sea by industry.
That gear work took a monumental leap forward in June 2005 when ECPA, with sponsorship from Swan Net East Coast Services in Gloucester and Swan Net Gundry Ltd. in Gundry, Ireland, organized a trip to Memorial University in St. John’s, Newfoundland to test different net designs in the university’s world-famous flume tank.
One design proved to be so promising that some fishermen began using it immediately.
And this fall, ECPA boats, in cooperation with the Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI), will be formally conducting sea trials to better document the net’s performance.
Another accomplishment was a gentleman’s agreement ECPA brokered three years ago, which remains in place today, whereby midwater trawlers refrain from fishing in the Gulf of Maine from Friday night to Sunday night year-round, timed to coincide with Maine’s days-out-of-the fishery provision.
The agreement stipulates: “No nets in the water for 48 hours.”
Still communicating
According to Tooley, the board emphasized its desire to have individual members continue to communicate with each other and work toward consensus whenever key issues arise.
In a press release announcing its decision to dissolve the association, the board, on behalf of its membership, thanked the Maine Department of Marine Resources, NMFS, and GMRI “for their efforts in promoting research that supports healthy fisheries.”
Tooley, who served as ECPA’s primary spokesperson over the past four years, has already had several offers to continue working in the fishing community, and she intends to remain actively involved in one capacity or another.
“I’m looking forward to new challenges,” she said.
Janice M. Plante
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