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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 34 Number 1
September 2006
Maine DMR, industry hash over groundfish strategy
PORTLAND, ME – Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) Commissioner George Lapointe and his staff have been meeting with fishermen and others since late May to get their feedback on what should be done with federal groundfish management so that it works for the Maine industry, rebuilds stocks, and preserves the state’s fishing infrastructure.
The meetings are part of DMR’s effort to prepare for upcoming deliberations by the New England Fishery Management Council, which next year is expected to begin working on another major groundfish action.
“In the eight years I’ve been here we’ve made major changes and things haven’t worked out,” Lapointe said during an Aug. 8 industry meeting in Portland attended by around 20-25 people. “The industry is not healthy right now. We need to fix it for the economic health of the industry and to restore the stocks.”
Port Clyde fisherman Glen Libby agreed that something needed to change.
“Midcoast fishermen are seeing nothing, just a continued decline,” he said. “Days-at-sea cuts don’t work. There are places inshore that are dead with only skates and dogfish.”
Some fishermen noted that Framework 42 to the federal groundfish plan had not been implemented yet and that the results from that should be determined before proceeding with any new plan or amendment.
“Mortality has never been lower,” said Portland fisherman and New England council member Jim Odlin. “We don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Many points of view
The Aug. 8 meeting was the fifth in a series that included sessions in Augusta, Port Clyde, Saco, and a previous one in Portland. According to DMR, around 75 people attended those gatherings and they offered many different ideas for improving federal groundfish management.
These included suggestions to: outlaw discarding; protect critical habitat and forage species; make it possible to catch abundant species like haddock; set up inshore and offshore management areas; re-examine the state’s prohibition on dragger-caught lobster; move big boats offshore; increase observer coverage; use individual transferable quotas (ITQs) if hard total allowable catch levels (TACs) are adopted; and avoid hard TACs since they will devastate smaller boats and fishing communities.
Sector/area management
Much of the Aug. 8 meeting focused on the idea of sector management.
Some fishermen who spoke in Portland favored pursuing a sector approach similar to what the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen’s Association (CCCHFA) has done except that it would include all species, not just cod.
Instead of a full-blown amendment, Odlin suggested that Maine fishermen might want to pursue setting up two or three Maine sectors that fishermen would manage themselves.
“I’m throwing this out on the table,” he said.
While there was some interest, fishermen also voiced concerns.
Fisherman Chris Odlin indicated that any sector would have to give preference to serious groundfish fishermen.
“I have invested heavily to get where I am,” he said. “I don’t want to be equal to a lobster guy who works to catch groundfish a few days.”
Mike Love said that sectors sounded like ITQs to him and wondered about the costs involved.
Maggie Raymond, spokesman for Associated Fisheries of Maine, countered by saying, ”Buying quota is going to cost money. What’s the difference between buying days-at-sea or quota?”
Others questioned if discards would be a problem under a multiquota sector system.
Yvette Alexander asked, “If you have a quota, what do you do with the fish when you run out of quota – discard?”
Geoff Smith of The Nature Conservancy suggested the idea of “tradability” of quota among the sectors to minimize discarding.
Who would manage?
John Williamson of The Ocean Conservancy posed this question to Portland Fish Exchange General Manager Hank Soule: “Do you have the core at the fish exchange to manage sectors?”
Soule responded that the exchange could manage sectors. He added that he didn’t see any conflict because the sectors themselves would operate as nonprofits, though with a profit to the owners.
But Soule cautioned that everyone would have to be clear on what the sectors would actually be.
“People need to show exactly what areas they are talking about,” he said.
As the meeting wound down, Lapointe stated that he needed to hear from people. He asked the group to be realistic on the changes Maine needs to push for.
“Major work needs to be done,” Lapointe said. “Is this serious enough for us to push for an amendment?”
For more information on the Maine groundfish initiative, call DMR’s Cindy Smith at (207) 624-6558 or e-mail her at <Cindy.Smith@maine.gov>.
Rosanne Mizzoni
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