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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 34 Number 9
May 2007
Buyout committee disbands; MA members disagree on issues
NEW BEDFORD, MA – After more than a year of intensive work on an industry-funded buyout program for the Northeast groundfish fishery, the Multispecies Capacity Reduction Committee officially disbanded on March 20, effectively killing the buyout effort.
According to a short notice on the committee’s web site, “Committee members could no longer agree that proceeding with the buyout was in the best interest of the groundfish fishery.”
Back in November, the committee conducted an industry-wide referendum and mailed out ballots to all groundfish permit holders asking people whether or not they supported an industry-funded buyout. The purpose of the referendum was to gauge the level of support among potentially impacted fishermen.
Roughly one-third of the ballots were returned and, of the responders, roughly two-thirds wanted to pursue the idea.
This led the buyout committee shortly after Christmas to unanimously support moving forward with the next phase of the program – asking Congress to authorize the buyout and set aside money to support it.
But the initiative fell apart in the following weeks when, following subsequent discussions, three of the four Massachusetts industry members on the buyout committee voted to “stop now.” The other six members from other states continued to support bringing the proposal to Washington.
The Massachusetts position, however, essentially put an end to the effort.
Committee facilitator David Borden of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) said it would be extremely difficult to advance the idea with 75% of the Massachusetts representatives in opposition.
“It is highly unlikely that Congress would support funding for this program if the Massachusetts fishing industry and congressional delegation oppose the proposal,” he wrote in a widely distributed memo following the committee’s Feb. 28 vote.
Furthermore, DMF provided extensive funding and staffing to the committee and couldn’t justify supporting the activity if the majority of its own industry members were opposed.
The Massachusetts members cited various reasons for wanting to stop the initiative, which ranged from raising “false expectations” among industry members to concerns about potential disconnects between the details of the buyout and Amendment 16 to the groundfish plan.
A complete timeline of events and summaries of the committee meetings are available on the committee’s web site at <www.nebuyout.org>.
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