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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 33 Number 11
July 2006
‘Standing by’: Nelson ‘Hammer’ Beideman
A tribute to the ultimate defender of US swordfish longline fleet
by Rich Ruais
Nelson “Hammer” Beideman died on May 25. Terri Lei, his loving wife and partner, and his sons, Ben and Justin, lost a devoted husband and father. And the US swordfish pelagic longline fleet lost an incredibly strong warrior.
Nelson was executive director of Blue Water Fishermen’s Association and, in that role, he defended and promoted his industry more fiercely than anyone in the world. The US longline fleet still exists today and has a fully rebuilt resource – a near miracle – due to his dedicated leadership and perseverance.
I learned about Nelson’s passing in an emotional phone call from a distraught Glenn Delaney on that Thursday morning. I couldn’t believe the news. I was numb. How could this be at just 53 years old?
No one worked closer with Nelson than Glenn did for more than a decade handling the countless, never-ending crises facing the US swordfish fleet, and Nelson, Glenn, and I had worked together on bluefin tuna and swordfish management issues since the early 1990s.
We traveled together all over Spain and to Morocco, France, Ireland, Japan, and elsewhere defending and promoting our industries at the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT). In Brazil, Nelson’s leadership led to ICCAT’s adoption of the North Atlantic swordfish rebuilding plan that resulted in today’s fully rebuilt stock. We developed a strong bond during our travels together, but the depth of this bond only became clear to me with Nelson’s passing.
I first met Hammer at a South Atlantic Fishery Management Council meeting in Charlestown, SC around 1987 when he came ashore from fishing to fight the plan to implement a unilateral US management system known at the time as the Variable Season Closure.
This plan would have ignored the high seas swordfish fisheries of Japan, Spain, Taiwan, and the rest of the world and restricted only the US fleet. Hammer not only led the fight to defeat this ill-advised plan, he became a leader in the fight to place highly migratory species management authority in the hands of the secretary of commerce, which ultimately came to pass with the 1990 Magnuson Act amendments.
An ICCAT fixture
In the 1990s, Hammer became a fixture at meetings of the US ICCAT Advisory Committee (IAC), where he dominated most of the swordfish management discussions. His knowledge of complex management and biological issues was unchallengeable and came from his on-the-water experiences and his hard study of those issues.
The 1990s were a tremendously difficult time for the US pelagic fleet. In fact, it is hard to imagine a US fishery under more siege than the longline fleet was with a depleted resource, bycatch issues, and major enemies in the recreational billfish and environmental communities.
As all who worked with him can appreciate, his passionate defense of longline gear and longline fishermen was sincere and deep. Nothing was sacred with Hammer if he viewed you or your proposal as a threat to his fishery, and that is the most you can ask of any executive director.
No backing down
This passion often got him in trouble with IAC Chairman Dr. John Dean and later with Dr. John Graves. Hammer could not be controlled, despite the best of efforts and intentions of both these gentlemen.
I once made the mistake of advising him to tone down his direct confrontations with IAC members and NMFS staff. Hammer told me, “You can’t put me back in the womb.” He was genuine and wasn’t about to hold back.
Even his friends and supporters did not escape his intense demand for loyalty and support on behalf of his industry.
At ICCAT meetings, he had a simple but effective technique for getting his issues to the forefront if he felt progress was not being made fast enough. Within earshot of all of the US ICCAT commissioners and delegation, he would announce that he could not get the attention of “the Bluefin US Commissioner.” This was Hammer’s very effective way of scolding Glenn Delaney to press even harder on his issues, as if that were possible.
Bycatch equity
I will never forget the time he came close to a fist-fight with a drunk billfish charter boat captain in a hotel lobby in Santiago de Compostela, Spain when the red-faced captain wouldn’t accept Hammer’s insistence that bycatch was an issue for all hook-and-line fisheries, not just longline hooks.
Even though most of us left him alone on this unpopular issue, Hammer demanded that all fisheries be held to the tough bycatch standards set for the longline fleet regardless of recreational or commercial status.
ICCAT meetings abroad are long and difficult and take a tremendous toll physically and mentally on all participants. Meetings extending 10 to 12 hours long are not uncommon, especially towards the end of the nearly two-week sessions. Dinners and refreshments at the end of the day are greatly anticipated as a way to escape from the hard issues for a few hours.
But not for Hammer. Work did not end when the meeting ended. Most of the time it was just the beginning. As a result, he was not always the first choice of many for a dinner companion.
In fact, I will confess now that we had to hide from him on a few occasions to catch a needed break. He shouldered a lot of responsibility defending his fishery here at home and abroad. It was not just a daytime job.
Disappointment with NMFS
In recent years, Hammer was clearly frustrated, angry, and disappointed that he could not secure concrete measures from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to “revitalize” his swordfish fleet, which had been diminished by the effect of closed areas and restrictions from 400 vessels to less than 60 today.
After all, didn’t his industry volunteer to carry out pioneering research to dramatically reduce bycatch of billfish and sea turtles by experiments with circle hooks, alternative baits, varying water temperatures and depths, and more?
Didn’t his industry lead the international campaign to rebuild swordfish and get other nations with swordfish fleets that dwarfed the US in numbers and bycatch mortality to adopt more resource friendly longline practices?
Hammer would plead at every opportunity with NMFS Director Dr. Bill Hogarth: Isn’t it time for NMFS to allow a long-suffering and cooperative industry a reasonable opportunity to catch a little more of the US swordfish quota?
He never did get a satisfactory answer to that last question.
“Standing by ...”
Hammer’s big heart gave out on May 25. He gave all he could to defend his industry, and there will never be another like him. I hope his boys, Ben and Justin, are as proud as possible over their dad’s tremendous commitment, hard work, and accomplishments.
In all my hundreds of phone conversations with Nelson, he never once said goodbye. His final salutation was always “standing by.” And this is what he did 24/7, year-round. He stood by to protect his fishermen. God bless him and his family.
Rich Ruais is the executive director of the East Coast Tuna Association.
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