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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 34 Number 3
November 2006
Fishermen, council voice deep frustration over US/CA process
PEABODY, MA – The final 2007 total allowable catch (TAC) levels for Georges Bank cod and yellowtail flounder won’t be known for a while, but whatever they turn out to be, they’ll be low – extremely low – and they’ll have serious implications for all offshore fishing in the Northeastern United States.
Deeply worried about the year ahead, David Pierce, a Massachusetts member of the New England Fishery Management Council, urged the council at its Sept. 26-28 meeting to charge its respective plan development teams (PDTs) with evaluating the impact of a 1,250 metric ton (mt) TAC for yellowtail on the US Georges Bank groundfish and scallop fisheries.
“How can we live with ourselves if we don’t know the implications of this?” he asked.
While the council concluded that its PDTs were already over taxed, the request nonetheless highlighted how the direness of the situation on Georges has people on edge.
In a different move, New Hampshire council member David Goethel thought the time had come for US/Canada groundfish negotiations to rise to a higher level. He wanted the council to seek a more formal agreement for management of transboundary stocks through the US Department of State.
“It’s become painfully apparent to me that this understanding does not work,” said Goethel. “I don’t mind negotiating with people but I don’t want to negotiate with one arm tied behind my back. We can’t talk about the things we really need to talk about because they’re not on the list.”
Stay the course
The joint US/Canada Transboundary Management Guidance Committee (TMGC) currently negotiates quota shares for transboundary Georges Bank groundfish stocks.
Maine council member George Lapointe, who heads the US contingent to the TMGC, opposed abandoning the sharing agreement in lieu of something else at a different government level.
“I urge caution,” he said. “Instead, I would be willing to work with council staff and the regional office staff to see where we failed.”
Massachusetts council member Tom Hill said he thought it was a “strategic error” to even be “signaling to our neighbors” in Canada that the council would consider such a move.
“We’re uncomfortable because we have a very low TAC for yellowtail. That’s not a fault of the agreement,” he said.
Hill said things were far worse before the US entered into what is officially called the US/Canada Resource Sharing Understanding, which has been used for four years and was codified in Amendment 13 to the groundfish plan.
“They just caught what they wanted and we had to respond,” he said. “This is a huge step forward.”
TMGC’s role
Massachusetts council member Rodney Avila wasn’t so sure given his own experience with swordfish. The US, by being a member of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), was bound to implement quota shares developed by ICCAT. The US always did its part, even when other countries didn’t comply.
“I’ve been down this road with swordfish,” said Avila. “Until we get the other side to have its feet to the fire, I don’t think we’re working under the same rules.”
Council member Rip Cunningham, also of Massachusetts, didn’t see it that way.
“If we walk away from this agreement, our feet will still be held to the fire and we’ll have no real opportunity to have a dialogue with the Canadians. I think we ought to fix the devil we know,” he said.
Rhode Island council member and US TMGC representative Phil Ruhle thought more in-house communication would help matters considerably.
“We should have the TMGC meet with the (National Marine Fisheries) Service and have a good sit-down on the actual agreement so we all have a good understanding of where we want to go,” he said.
Council Chairman John Pappalardo, another US TMGC representative, agreed and said the council’s executive committee would look at the TMGC’s role.
The motion to elevate discussions to the State Department level failed in a 2-12 vote.
Goethel said, “Maybe we need to give the TMGC more power to talk about more than just quotas.”
Janice M. Plante
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