New life for fisheries
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AFTER DECADES of depleting groundfish species such as cod, pollock, and flounder, fishermen in New England are considering a new management system for the 2010 season that has the potential to make the industry more sustainable and less dangerous and costly. But as the New England Fishery Management Council votes on the new system this week in Portland, it must lay down rules that will help the new approach achieve its goals.
Until now, the council has tried, with little success, to reduce overfishing by limiting a fisherman’s days at sea and the size of any day’s catch. One consequence of the day limits is the lamentable necessity of dumping excess catch overboard. Under the new system, fishermen would join in about 20 community-based sectors that will each have a fixed annual quota, which will be a fraction of a scientifically-determined sustainable catch for the region.
With all sectors adhering to their quotas, the industry can expect stocks to rebuild over time, and the quotas eventually to increase. Unlike other management systems, sectors give fishermen an incentive to husband their resource. Sectors also eliminate the need for wasteful day limits and take the pressure off fishermen to go out in hazardous weather.
But even if the council establishes the sector system, fishermen will be under no compulsion to join. Fishermen who stay in the “common pool’’ will continue to work under days-at-sea rules. The council must adopt hard allowable catch limits for these fishermen to ensure that they do not quickly deplete the stocks and deprive sector fishermen of a chance to make their quotas. With the assistance of the National Marine Fisheries Service, the council will also have to ensure that there are enough monitors on the water to guarantee that both the sector fishermen and those in the common pool comply with their limits.
Sectors are a form of “catch-share’’ fishery management, which has worked well in foreign countries, Alaska, and elsewhere in the United States, including among Cape Cod hook fishermen. If successfully adopted for New England groundfish, sectors could help the region meet a 2006 congressional mandate to end all overfishing in US waters by 2011.
The current management system has failed miserably to make a dent in overfishing. According to the 2008 congressional testimony of a Marine Fisheries Service official, the number of overfished stocks actually increased by five to 13 since 2004. Sectors can reverse that dismal trend, but the new system will work only if it is backed up by rigorous rules and monitoring for fishermen in sectors and the common pool.
