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 37 Number 9
May 2010
May start for Downeast Maine’s sentinel groundfish fishery
STONINGTON, ME – No one has been able to earn a living from groundfish fishing in Downeast Maine for years, causing boats to turn to other fisheries to stay in business. So it’s notable that, on May 1, a fisherman from this region will head to sea on a groundfish trip.
Jason Joyce of Swans Island, a member of the Northeast Coastal Communities Sector, will use his vessel, the ANDANAMRA, to hook-fish for a variety of Gulf of Maine groundfish stocks, including both flatfish and roundfish.
He will become the first person to take part in the Northern Gulf of Maine Groundfish Sentinel Fishery, which was organized by the Penobscot East Resource Center (PERC).
The sentinel fishery is a cooperative research project designed by Yong Chen of the University of Maine and carried out in conjunction with the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) and PERC. The goal of the project is to determine whether groundfish stocks have come back to parts of Downeast Maine in strong enough numbers to support a small-scale, economically viable commercial fishery.
Last July, Penobscot East, in partnership with the Maine chapter of The Nature Conservancy, set up a groundfish permit bank. With considerable funding from the conservancy, the bank bought its first – and so far only – permit. Other private donors contributed as well.
The permit, which was attached to the 56' steel dragger Thunder Bay, was purchased from veteran fisherman Vic Levesque, who fished out of Mount Desert Island for most of his life and was ready to retire.
At the time of the transfer, Levesque said, “I wanted to give the young fellas coming in to fishing the rights that I had.”
The groundfish history from this permit and a few other remaining permits in eastern Maine is what has given the Northeast Coastal Communities Sector a 2010 allocation of roughly 200,000 pounds of groundfish.
According to Penobscot East Associate Director Victoria Young, the sector hopes the quota will allow Joyce to fish roughly 30 days during May and June, even though he may not catch the full available allocation for each species. The boat will carry an observer and is equipped with a vessel monitoring system and data recording software.
The catch will be landed in Stonington and sold to customers in Penobscot East's Groundfish Community Supported Fishery.
Next Year
The ANDANAMRA will be the only vessel participating in the sentinel fishery at the start of this new fishing year. However, Young said Penobscot East is working with other sector fishermen to join Joyce in the near future.
In addition, PERC is attempting to secure a federal appropriation for 2011 to help keep the sentinel fishery – and its accompanying research – going.
In a Feb. 23 presentation to congressional representatives, which was video taped in US Rep. Chellie Pingree’s (D-ME) office, Penobscot East Executive Director Robin Alden explained the purpose of the project and why she believed it was important to the future of Downeast Maine fishermen.
“About 20 years ago, we started to lose the groundfish in the area from the Penobscot Bay islands to the Canadian border … and with the loss of groundfish, we lost our groundfishermen. So, Matinicus, Vinalhaven, Northhaven, Isle au Haut, and Hancock and Washington County fishermen are now perilously dependent on primarily one fishery – lobster,” said Alden.
Putting this in perspective, she continued, “This is 43% of the Maine coast. It’s 50 fishing communities. It’s the most highly fishery-dependent area in all of New England. It’s a hidden fragility in the coastal economy that I think is comparable to the potential loss of a major industrial facility.”
In summary, Alden said, “The sentinel fishery is the next step in our major long-term effort to address this situation … and find out what’s going on with these groundfish stocks.”
Janice M. Plante
Back to story list
|
|
Tell us what you think.
