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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 33 Number 10
June 2006
RI fishermen establish research foundation
KINGSTON, RI – Convinced that cooperative research is vital to the commercial fishing industry, a small group of Rhode Island fishermen have made an investment in research and, they hope, in their future.
A few years back, a half-dozen or so guys pitched in $500-$1,000 each to file the necessary paperwork to establish the nonprofit Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation of Rhode Island.
In April, the foundation finished up its first major cooperative research project, which involved the development and testing of a low-bycatch, large-mesh faced haddock net.
The idea for starting the foundation first emerged from discussions about what to do with approximately $1.5 million in federal economic aid to Rhode Island groundfish fishermen that Congress appropriated back in 2002.
Several fishermen who were doing OK and were heavily committed to staying in the fishery suggested using the funds as seed money to start a cooperative research foundation.
They lost that argument and the money was eventually dispersed to individuals, but the idea of creating a foundation continued to make sense to fishermen like Jim O’Grady, owner of the Iron Horse.
“We didn’t get the (economic aid) money, but we wanted to move forward. We knew that there was money out there for cooperative research through the Northeast Consortium and the New England Fisheries Science Center and we wanted the foundation to be a vehicle for pursuing those funds,” said O’Grady, who is the foundation president.
Advantages
Running cooperative research proposals through the foundation has its advantages, according to several of the people involved.
Dave Beutel, of the University of Rhode Island (URI) and Rhode Island Sea Grant (RISG), was a principal investigator in the haddock trawl project.
He explained that the project, which was funded to the tune of $422,000 by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Cooperative Research Partners Program, only covered the collaborative design of the net and three five-day, side-by-side testing trips.
However, everyone working on the project felt that gauging the true effectiveness of the large-mesh trawl would take four five-day trips – basically one for each season of the year.
Along with Beutel and O’Grady, the other principal investigators on the project were Laura Skrobe of URI and RISG, Phil Ruhle Sr. and Phil Ruhle Jr. of the Sea Breeze, and Jonathan Knight of Superior Trawl.
Together, they worked out a funding arrangement with NMFS. URI would administer the project, the Sea Breeze and the Iron Horse would use A-days for the sea trials, and the boats would bring home the fish.
But instead of each vessel keeping its own catch, the fish would be sold with the proceeds turned over to the foundation. In turn, the foundation would pay each vessel a daily charter fee of $6,500.
“What the foundation allowed us to do was get a set amount of dollars per day no matter how much we caught,” O’Grady said.
The arrangement protected the integrity of the research, he explained, since the fishermen were able to focus on the project rather than being preoccupied with the economics of each trip. And the proceeds from the sale of the fish netted enough money to pay for the fourth leg of the project and even left about $30,000 in the foundation’s coffers to help pay for future research projects.
“A university can’t be paid in fish,” Beutel observed.
Unique state
The Rhode Island foundation isn’t the first organization in the Northeast set up to handle cooperative research funding. For example, for several years now, the National Fisheries Institute—Scientific Monitoring Committee (NFI-SMC) has successfully applied for set-aside quota through the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s research set-aside program administered by NMFS.
NFI-SMC auctions off its quota awards to fishermen who typically get to catch the fish outside of regular season and trip-limit restrictions. The money raised by the auction is used to fund cooperative research projects.
Rhode Island’s fishing industry is comprised of boats that work in both traditional New England groundfish fisheries and Mid-Atlantic fisheries, such as squid and scup.
“Most of us are members of the NFI-SMC,” said Phil Ruhle Sr. “But we wanted something for Rhode Island.”
Both O’Grady and fisherman Chris Brown echoed that sentiment.
“Rhode Island is unique in its own way. We’re in between a groundfish port like New Bedford and being a strictly Mid-Atlantic port,” said O’Grady. “Sometimes there are going to be research questions that are important to us.”
Added Brown, “When we finally figure out fisheries management, I believe we’ll be responsible for getting a lot of our own information. This will be a way to do that.”
Haddock net encouraging
Now that the sea trials of the haddock net, which Superior Trawl has dubbed “The Eliminator,” are done, Beutel and Skrobe are turning their attention to doing the analysis and writing up the final report.
The results so far are encouraging.
“The bycatch rates are really small and it eliminated most of the groundfish,” said Beutel.
Added O’Grady, “This net is tremendous. It’s going to be another tool in the toolbox we can use to keep fishing. In the long run, that’s what we’re hoping to gain by all this – access to haddock in the eastern areas – not just for us but for anyone willing to use this net.”
The fishermen who make up the foundation’s board of directors are starting to think about what comes next.
Since they’re all so busy fishing, running their businesses, and dealing with management issues, they’d like to recruit someone for the foundation with grant experience who could scope out funding opportunities and write proposals for cooperative research projects.
And they’d like to bring other fishermen from their area on board.
“We’re wide open,” said O’Grady. “We want ideas from the fishing industry down here. We don’t have a set membership list. We’re willing to hear from anybody.”
Lorelei Stevens
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