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 33 Number 5
January 2006
Rope exchange funded, GoMOOS cut, MSA moves
WASHINGTON, DC - Between passage of the Commerce Department budget and steady progress on the reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA), Congress has been humming in recent weeks with fisheries-related business.
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is a Commerce Department agency and much of the funding for programs important to Northeast fishermen is directed through it.
Although the fiscal year (FY) ’06 budget was signed into law in November, exact funding figures were not yet available in mid-December because the agency was still determining final spending levels.
Also, Congress was continuing debate on important spending bills and was putting everyone on notice that all federal agencies might have to take an across-the-board percentage cut before the federal budgetary process was done, so none of the figures presented here are final. They do, however, reflect the intent of Congress.
All that said, here’s a brief look at where things stand.
ME rope exchange
The Gulf of Maine Lobster Foundation received an appropriation of $2 million to fund year one of the “Groundline Exchange Program.”
The program was proposed by the foundation, which is a nonprofit science organization whose board of directors is made up of people representing all Gulf of Maine lobster fishing areas. The foundation hopes federal funding will total $6 million over three years.
The intent of the exchange program is to ensure that Maine lobstermen will be able to comply with new requirements of the anticipated Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan.
In a joint statement released by US Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Susan Collins (R-ME), the senators agreed that, while the ban on floating groundline proposed by NMFS might afford greater protection to whales, it will pose a threat to the economic survival of Maine’s independent lobster business.
“We must ensure that our lobstermen have the assistance they need to comply with these new regulations,” the statement said.
The Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA) estimates that future requirements to convert from poly groundline to sinking or, perhaps, low-profile groundline could cost a typical full-time lobster business around $10,000.
And the cost won’t end there. The MLA estimates that a typical lobsterman fishing 800 traps now spends an average of $500-$1,000 on rope annually. That yearly cost will increase to about $3,000 with sink or low-profile rope.
The Gulf of Maine Lobster Foundation is working with the Maine Department of Marine Resources, the New England Aquarium, and lobstermen to develop a low-profile groundline that hovers near, but not on, the bottom, which it hopes will be an acceptable alternative to sink line.
MLA Executive Director Patrice McCarron said many lobstermen in southern Maine have been affected by dynamic area management (DAM) actions imposed by NMFS to protect concentrations of northern right whales over the last three years.
Some of these lobstermen have already spent thousands of dollars to buy sink rope in order to continue fishing legally in the DAM areas. At the very least, the anticipated whale rules are expected to phase out use of poly groundline by 2008, she said.
The foundation hopes the Groundline Exchange Program will be up and running by the summer of 2006.
Northeast Consortium
The Northeast Consortium, which administers federal funding for cooperative research projects, received an appropriation of $5 million. The funds are distributed through an annual open competition among project proposals.
Chris Glass, the consortium’s new director, said that a request for proposals (RFP) will be announced in early- to mid-January.
Created in 1999 “to encourage and fund effective equal partnerships among commercial fishermen, scientists, and other stakeholders,” the consortium is made up of the University of New Hampshire, University of Maine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
More information on the consortium and, when announced, the next RFP, can be found on its web site at <www.northeastconsortium.org>.
GoMOOS funding cut
On the downside of the budget outcome, the Gulf of Maine Ocean Observing System (GoMOOS) saw its federal appropriation slashed from $1.88 million in FY ’05 to just $500,000 for FY ’06.
Through its web site, GoMOOS provides thousands of Gulf of Maine fishermen real-time information on weather and sea conditions, bottom temperature, and current and tide information.
“This array is extremely important to Maine lobstermen,” said McCarron. “It helps keep them safe and helps them plan their trips. It’s a shame the funding was cut so significantly. This may impact their ability to maintain the buoy array.”
Charlie Spies, GoMOOS’s chief operating officer, said the loss of funding was a serious blow to the program.
“The upshot is we’re continuing to turn stones over for additional possible funding sources and we’re tightening our belt,” he said.
GoMOOS, which began in 1999, is headquartered in Portland, ME. It operates with a staff of seven people plus a team of 24 scientists and technicians at the University of Maine who designed and operate the high-tech buoy system.
GoMOOS is recognized nationally as an ocean observation leader that delivers timely information. Its web site receives more than 1.3 million hits a year, according to GoMOOS. In addition to fishermen, users include recreational boaters, shippers, the Coast Guard and National Weather Service, research scientists, and educators.
Despite this serious set back, Spies is hopeful that Congress will convert funding for the system from an earmark to a line item in the NMFS budget, which would better ensure consistent funding.
“We continually hear from fishermen, our users, that they are willing to help by contacting their congressional representatives. I’m optimistic in that sense,” Spies said. “But we’ve got a lot of work to do to fill this funding gap.”
Magnuson-Stevens Act
Continuing a fast track toward final approval, the Senate Commerce Committee passed a substitute MSA reauthorization bill on Dec. 15. The bill heads next to the full Senate for consideration, possibly in January.
The substitute retains key provisions of the Sustainable Fisheries Act, the legislation that last amended the MSA in 1996, while incorporating comments and suggestions from the Bush Administration, states, industry, environmental organizations, committee members, and others.
Among those are changes championed by Sen. Snowe, which:
Allow New England to use a range of fishery management tools to satisfy total allowable catch (TAC) rules;
Ensure that two-thirds of eligible fishermen are required to approve any limited-access privilege programs in New England, including individual fishing quotas, community quotas, and regional fishery association quotas;
Direct managers to consider steaming time in fishery management plans to conserve days-at-sea;
Waive a US processing requirement for fisheries that can show historic practices of processing in other countries with comparable food safety standards;
Direct the commerce secretary to work with the Small Business Administration and other federal agencies to facilitate US investment in domestic processing;
Streamline criteria and approval of experimental (exempted) fishing permits;
Direct managers to use economic and social data and assessment methods based on the best information available and to analyze the cumulative impacts of management measures; and
Authorize a cooperative research study of herring in the Gulf of Maine.
Unresolved
The original reauthorization bill included a provision requiring fishery managers to set TAC limits on the amount of fish caught each year and to deduct any overage of a TAC in the following year.
Some New England members of Congress opposed such inflexible limits. The issue remains unresolved and will be debated during full Senate consideration of the bill.
“It is imperative that the Senate provides meaningful catch limits that end overfishing and allow us to rebuild our stocks, our businesses, and our communities,” said Peter Baker, campaign director for the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen’s Association, a member of the Marine Fish Conservation Network, which opposes relaxation of the hard TAC proposal.
In addition to the network, the National Resources Defense Council, National Environmental Trust, and Conservation Law Foundation all released statements highly critical of the New England congressional delegation members who stood against hard TACs.
Enforcement
Another provision in the bill that is controversial is one that would criminalize all “knowing” violations of the MSA.
Historically, Congress has agreed that most provisions of the act should be enforced civilly to avoid characterizing fishermen as “criminals.”
When a fisherman is accused of violating the act by landing fish in excess of a trip limit, for example, that case has been handled through the administrative law system, with penalties that can range from a written warning to monetary assessments and permit sanctions.
Criminalization instead would put infractions into the federal court system in front of federal judges and juries and ramp up the possible penalties to include jail time.
“Knowing” violations would likely include violations of minimum net or fish sizes and closed areas or seasons, among others.
back to story list
|
|
Tell us what you think.
