N.E. fishermen win reprieve on catch limits

WASHINGTON -- New England fishermen would be spared from a strict federal limit on how much fish they could catch in a given year under a measure approved by a key Senate committee yesterday, pleasing regional lawmakers but frustrating environmentalists who are hoping for tighter measures to protect the area's fish population from overfishing.

The Senate Commerce Committee agreed on a voice vote to allow New England to continue its current policy, which limits the number of days at sea commercial fishermen can fish in federal waters to guard fish stocks from depletion. Environmentalists want to put a hard limit on the total amount of fish that can be caught in such areas as off Cape Cod, where the stock of its signature fish has dropped dramatically in recent years.

Senators and lobbyists, however, cautioned that the reprieve may be temporary, and that the final legislation may well force New England to follow the fishing rules that would govern the rest of the country, including an enforceable cap on the actual amount of fish caught. But the region's lawmakers hailed yesterday's action, which US Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine called ''common-sense safeguards to protect stocks and the interests of the fishing industry."

''We need a common federal framework that achieves the goal of sustaining fish and fishermen, while still providing our [regional authorities] with the flexibility and tools they need to address their unique local and regional challenges," said Snowe, a Republican who has been active in crafting the landmark legislation.

The bill would establish a major national framework to balance the needs of commercial fishermen with environmentalists' desire to keep fish populations at healthy and sustainable levels. Congress has not changed the standards since 1996, and is under pressure to deal with faltering fish stocks.

Both environmentalists and fishermen agree: Well-stocked waters protect both the ecosystem and a way of life that has defined New England's maritime heritage. But they are debating the best way to strike that balance.

Some New England lawmakers who are usually allied with the environmental movement have sided in fishing matters with their constituent fishermen, who are fighting federal limits designed to prevent overfishing. Representative Barney Frank, a Newton Democrat, is working against fishing caps that he said could hurt New Bedford, the most productive fishing port in the nation.

The New England Fishery Management Council, one of eight such panels across the nation that govern fishing, has long resisted strict controls, which they fear would put fishermen out of business. The council's membership includes fishermen.

Instead of hard quotas that would shut down a fishery once an annual limit is reached -- or trigger a ''pay back" by reducing catches the following year if they exceed it -- the council has attempted to control fishing by making fishermen less efficient. In the last 25 years, the council has placed an ever-tightening web of restrictions on the number of days boats can fish, what kind of gear fishermen can use, and when they must return part of their catch.

But that strategy has not completely solved the problem of overfishing. Despite the restrictions, fishermen have found ways to become more efficient and the council hasn't installed rules strong enough to counteract that trend.

The council hasn't done much to control fishermen who catch more than the annual limit. Several lawsuits filed by environmentalists have helped fish populations rebound, but some environmentalists and fish managers say hard limits on catches have to be part of any long-term solution.

''They set limits, but they keep exceeding the limits every year," said Matt Rand, director of the Marine Fish Campaign for the National Environmental Trust. ''Cod is almost gone," and other fish that give New England its historic character are also threatened, he said.

Hook fishermen, who can't catch as much as trawlers, which sweep up fish with broad nets, also want a total cap on the amount of fish caught. ''There's an old way of doing things, and the old way of doing things has failed," said Peter Baker, campaign director of Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen's Association.

But many in the New England fishing community oppose the hard limit, saying it is unfair and could disrupt the market. If fishermen race to catch as much as they can before the limit is reached, the price of fish will be artificially depressed, they say. Instead, the government has to do a better job of assessing how many fish are in the ocean, a difficult task yesterday's legislation seeks to address by requiring more sophisticated measures to assess fish stocks.

''It isn't a case any longer of a fisherman going out and taking as much fish as he wants. There are too many controls on him," said Jim Kendall, head of New Bedford Seafood Coalition, an industry group that does not want hard limits on fish catches. He said the science behind counting fish is imperfect. ''If fishermen overharvest, we shouldn't pay the price of bad management or poor science."