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
|
Editorial
Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 34 Number 12
August 2007
IFQ, sector decisions affect all fishermen
It is not possible to overstate the significance of the decisions made at the June meeting of the New England Fishery Management Council.
Over the course of three grueling days, the council severed the last threads of its skepticism regarding individual fishing quotas with the adoption of IFQs for the general category scallop fishery. And it laid a path for allocating large chunks of the groundfish resource to specific groups by agreeing to consider 19 sector proposals in Amendment 16.
Both actions were enormous setbacks for the people who have fought for many years to prevent fisheries management policy in the region from evolving into ownership of the public resource. Although the council voted to immediately begin consideration of, among other things, the point system and area management in groundfish Amendment 17, that doesn’t change the fact that sectors will get an important head start in securing foothold claims to shares of most groundfish stocks if Amendment 16 is eventually approved with even a few of these newly forming sectors.
On the other hand, these outcomes were positive steps forward in the minds of many people incredibly frustrated by the endless stream of harsh regulations in response to the council’s struggle to effectively control fishing mortality, and among those who worry that current regulations jeopardize fishermen’s safety.
Fisheries management in New England is so difficult because, as anyone who closely follows the process knows, there is validity to all sides of these complex issues. At this juncture, everyone had a legitimate point.
The most important thing we can do now is to make clear to fishermen what will happen if the National Marine Fisheries Service approves scallop Amendment 11 and, in the future, Amendment 16 on its current course. The details are spelled out in the extensive coverage provided throughout this edition, but here are some highlights.
For groundfish, the 19 sector proposals the council already has in hand – many of which need much more development – will have to meet new sector guidelines.
These guidelines require each sector – generally defined as a group of limited-access permit holders who voluntarily enter into a contract to abide by common fishing restrictions to harvest a total allowable catch (TAC) based on their pooled fishing histories – to have a plan to deal with TAC overages and discards.
Any fisherman who is not already involved in a sector proposal basically has two options: try to join a sector and have some say in how the sector TAC will be managed; or continue fishing in the common pool under whatever the revised Amendment 16 rules turn out to be.
For scallops, every general category fisherman will be affected by the new limited-access program and IFQ fishery. Under the qualifying criteria adopted by the council, more than 500 vessels that were at least marginally active in the fishery could be out.
All of these measures are extremely complicated and will continue to evolve throughout the rest of the year. As always, Commercial Fisheries News will continue to do its best to explain the coming sea change. /cfn/
|
|
Tell us what you think.
