COMMERCE
Subscriber Services
Classified Ads
Subscribe
Advertise
NEWS
This Month
Editorial
Letters
F/V Safety
Past Issues
ABOUT US
Contact Us
Latest Issue
Subscribe
History
MORE CONTENT
CFN Archives
Links
Each month exclusively in the PRINT edition of CFN
Along the Coast
Ask the Lobster Doc
Bearin’s
Classifieds
Coming Events
Editorial
Enforcement Report
FISH SAFE
Fleet Additions
Letters
Lobster Market Report
New Boats
News Catch
Quahog Market Report
|
Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 34 Number 4
December 2006
Fishermen, gear specialists trade ideas at ICES
BOSTON, MA – The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) devoted the last day of its Oct. 30-Nov. 3 symposium held at the Seaport Hotel on Boston’s commercial waterfront to a special stakeholder forum.
About 250 of those who attended and participated in the full five-day symposium were experts in fishing gear technology hailing from 30 countries.
The stakeholder forum provided the opportunity for these scientists to share information about the work they’re doing around the world with fishermen, explained Chris Glass, conference co-convener and director of the Northeast Consortium.
“We had been building toward the stakeholder forum all week. It gave us as gear technologists a chance to hear what is missing, to direct us so we could go back to our own countries and know we are doing the right thing,” Glass said.
The forum began with several speakers followed by a panel of five experts in world fisheries. Each panel member gave an introduction and some background on the fisheries and countries in which they have worked.
Panel member Paul Howard, executive director of the New England Fishery Management Council, spoke about New England fisheries, touching on ecosystem management approaches, the knowledge of fishermen, and how well collaborative research has worked.
One of the five panel members, Bundit Chokesanguan, a gear technologist for the South East Asia Fisheries Development Center in Bangkok, Thailand, described how he traveled to Louisiana, Mississippi, and Mexico to learn about turtle excluder devices (TEDs) used in the Gulf of Mexico shrimp fishery.
Chokesanguan explained that he brought a TED back to his country and was able to hold demonstrations and workshops for local fishermen because of the knowledge he gained in working with Gulf shrimp fishermen.
Q&A
During the discussion portion of the forum, fishermen and industry members asked questions of panel members, who were sometimes assisted by audience members in answering questions and sharing their experiences. These participants included individuals and gear experts from Norway, Newfoundland, Canada, several Asian countries, and the Food and Agriculture (FAO) Organization of the United Nations.
Rhode Island fisherman Phil Ruhle came to the microphone and talked about the long delay in obtaining fisheries data in New England and asked how other countries expedited their data collection processes.
Panel member Paul Starr, an independent fisheries scientist who works with trawl fishermen in western Canada and lobster fishermen in New Zealand, responded that in western Canada there is 100% observer coverage in the trawl fleet and that the trawl fleet pays about 80% of the cost for observers.
New Hampshire fisherman Carl Bouchard asked, “How do you provide 100% observer coverage in a small boat fleet with many boats?”
Starr explained that he works primarily with fleets that fish in strict quota and individual transferable quota, or ITQ, systems. He said that the western Canada trawl fleet is relatively small and made up of large trawlers that fish for several days and can accommodate an observer.
Starr added that another method explored in other fisheries is the use of videotaping to track the catch as it comes onboard.
Fishermen’s role
Scituate, MA fisherman Frank Mirarchi asked why fishery independent data involving fishermen using their skills couldn’t be utilized instead of exclusively relying on government trawl surveys.
“That has huge potential,” answered Norman Graham of the Institute of Marine Research of Bergen, Norway. “Fishermen’s knowledge, along with fish behavior, and the seasonal component – I think it’s really important.”
Bob Taber of Trawlworks Inc. of Narragansett, RI observed that both government and industry have been successful in reducing bycatch, but that total elimination of bycatch is what is driving regulatory discards.
“Is there anywhere in the world that has solved this or what do you recommend,” he asked.
Graham said that while discards can never be eliminated in a mixed fishery, technology can help to reduce them.
Vessel economics
Suzanne Altenberger of The Bolger Group, a boat design firm in Gloucester, suggested that gear technologists were not addressing vessel economics.
“The vessel is the biggest gear in the fishermen’s toolbox,” said Altenberger.
Ken Arkley a gear technologist at the Sea Fish Industry Authority in the United Kingdom, said he is working toward trying to reduce drag on fishing gear to reduce fuel consumption, as well as on vessel design proportions and alternative fuels.
Arkley also said that this work will include collaborating with Dana Morse and Ken La Valley of Maine and NH Sea Grant on alternative fuels such as biofuels.
Universal problems
During the stakeholders forum, several fishermen vented their frustration with New England fisheries regulations to the panel. While sympathetic, Chris Glass urged the audience to take advantage of the opportunity of the forum’s global focus because fishermen in other countries experience similar problems.
Overall, several fishermen who attended said they learned a lot from the symposium and the forum.
“Considering the current state of New England fisheries, I didn’t think there was going to be much here for me,” said Green Harbor, MA fisherman Ed Barrett. “But I’ve talked to managers from around the world who see what we are doing and think that it may not be possible – the Sustainable Fisheries Act (SFA) is mission impossible.”
Portland fisherman Curt Rice, captain of the Robert Michael, said he saw some interesting net designs and put together a shopping list of people he can talk to about fishing gear.
“I’m tickled,” Rice said. “Great conference.”
For more information, visit the ICES web site at <www.ices.dk> or call Chris Glass at the Northeast Consortium at (603) 862-0122, and check out the Northeast Consortium web site at <www.northeastconsortium.org>.
Rosanne Mizzoni
Back to story list
|
|
Tell us what you think.
