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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 36 Number 1
September 2008
Cape Cod hookers create ‘trust’ to buy permits
CHATHAM, MA – Paul Parker, the executive director of the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen’s Association for the past decade, is stepping down to lead the group’s latest project, the Cape Cod Fisheries Trust.
The $10 million fund, which he will help build, aims to preserve the viability of Cape Cod’s small, family-based fishing operations. The program’s goal is to protect around 150 jobs on the Cape in the scallop, groundfish, and lobster fisheries and in related shoreside businesses.
Through grants and loans, the trust had already raised $1.3 million as of early August and expected to secure another $1 million shortly, Parker said. The trust had purchased several fishing permits, which it planned to lease or loan out to local fishermen who agree to fish in a sustainable manner.
When sector-based groundfish management begins in 2010, fishermen likely will obtain a share of the catch based at least in part on their history of landings in the past. The use of quotas to manage fisheries has caused permits to dramatically increase in value, with permits routinely trading for hundreds of thousands of dollars. While this can be a boon to current permit holders, Parker explained, it is a net loss for the community when permits are lost to large fishing conglomerates, or when young fishermen can’t afford to enter the industry.
Longtime Chatham fisherman Chris Davis said the permit held by his boat, the Coming Home, is likely to jump in value tenfold.
“And that sounds good if you own the permit and you want to retire,” he said.
But instead of selling the permit to a New Bedford sea scalloper whose 100' boat might hold multiple permits, Davis said he’s more interested in selling “to the captain who’s running the boat now, who’s a young man who can’t afford a quarter of a million dollars.”
So Davis is selling his scallop permit to the trust, which will then lease it out to the current skipper, Josh Neal of Chatham, who has two children. When Davis was sidelined with an injury, Neal offered to run the boat for him. The two are now business partners.
“He wants to make a go of being a fisherman,” Davis said, adding there was no way he could afford the market price for a decent permit.
“A buffer”
Once fully operational, the trust fund will hold the quota authorizations and lease or finance their sale to qualified fishermen. A portion of the permits will be reserved for new fishermen, Parker said.
Participants agree to use scallop dredges that are less destructive to the ocean bottom or to switch from trawl net gear to gillnets or longlines, which are less efficient but less likely to harm essential fish habitat, he said.
The trust doesn’t intend to buy up all of the available permits, Parker stressed. The organization will hold only enough to provide a buffer for the local fishing fleet, allowing fishermen to switch gear types in response to market demands, as they always have.
Preservation
Peter Taylor, president of the hook fishermen’s board of directors, said it’s hard to buy a permit for less than $200,000.
“It costs a couple hundred thousand dollars for a boat, a couple hundred thousand dollars for a permit,” he said. “And if you want to live in Chatham, well, you know how expensive that is.”
If steps aren’t taken to keep the small-scale fishery alive on the Cape, Taylor predicted the permits will migrate to Gloucester and New Bedford, leaving Chatham to become a port for recreational boaters only.
“That’d make a nice restaurant,” he quipped, peering over his shoulder at the packinghouse at Chatham’s municipal fish pier.
Transparency
Since the hook fishermen’s association board includes commercial fishermen, the administration of the trust needs to be separate and transparent, Parker said.
To that end, the trust has a partnership with the Lower Cape Community Development Corporation (LCCDC), which will oversee the leasing process.
Parker likened the system to an affordable housing project, in which the trust plays the part of the building owner, and the LCCDC acts as the property manager. The LCCDC already has experience helping local fishermen through a micro–loan program, he noted.
Concerns
Like any commercial fishing initiative, the trust is not without its critics. Some fishermen feel that it’s unfair for a trust fund to sell or lease fishing rights below their market value.
Others are more inclined to work independently than to take part in this kind of coalition. But Parker said fishing communities that have already struggled under quotas – like ones in Alaska – have undergone severe financial and ecological hardships, and that’s a warning that places like Chatham cannot afford to ignore.
With the change to a sector allocation system of fisheries management, fisheries trusts are taking hold around the nation. The closest is the Gloucester Fishing Community Preservation Fund, which is purchasing groundfish permits, Parker said.
As Parker prepares to give up day-to-day management of the hook fishermen’s association, the group is putting out the call for a new executive director. The association has retained a Boston-based executive search firm to help find a new leader. A job description is posted on the association’s web site at <www.ccchfa.org>.
Alan Pollock
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