From Labrador to the Falkland Islands, there are not many fishing grounds Stanley Adamczewski has not trawled in 46 years on the water as a commercial fisherman.
Fishing has been good to the Polish native who came to the U.S. in 1974 and started out as a deckhand on a groundfish boat. Through hard work and diligence, the man who fled communism to pursue the American dream realized his life’s ambition in 1986 when he was able to buy his own fishing boat in New Bedford, the 72-foot steel dragger Odin. He renamed her Humbak, the Polish word for the humpback whale.
But today the dream is fading. The days when a single-vessel owner like him can make a living on the water and keep a crew employed are vanishing before his eyes, he says.
Adamczewski has plenty of figures to support his belief. Last year, the fish he landed from his 72-foot steel dragger grossed more than $1 million at the dock, yet neither he nor his crew made a living wage for their long hours of hard, physical labor in one of the country’s most dangerous professions.
It has been a long, slow decline for his business and his crew, best illustrated by the settlement sheets he produces from nearly identical fishing trips made several years apart.
In 2003, with a crew of five, the Humbak made port after 10 days fishing and grossed $38,000. Each crew member’s share came to $2,631.
On March 20 this year, after a very similar trip and with the crew reduced to four, the catch brought $46,000 at the auction but, after expenses of $35,609, the crew received only $1,083.85 apiece for their efforts.
“They made less than minimum wage, about $4 an hour for around 240 hours work,” Adamczewski said. “They could make more on welfare than fishing.”
It takes time for a groundfisherman to acquire the skills necessary to navigate, cut fish, mend twine and maintain the boat, he says. His crew are all lifelong fishermen with a combined total of more than 200 years on the water among them. That is the reason the future looks very bleak for him and the rest of the draggers, he said. “Young men are not going out fishing now. Why should they?” he said. “They can make more scalloping.”
No matter how well he fishes, there is no guaranteed income since the price he receives for his catch fluctuates wildly. “You never know. I get $1.06 for hake one day and the next week it’s 50 cents,” he said.
Demand for fresh fish varies and with it the price, according to Rodney Avila, a lifelong fisherman.
There are a multitude of reasons, including cheap frozen imports, the quality of the fish depending on the season and gluts of landings that drive down prices.
With Good Friday approaching, demand was high in New Bedford on Wednesday but will drop off at the weekend as Lent ends. Winter storms that discourage people from eating in restaurants can also result in lower prices at the dock as demand weakens.
Yet Adamczewski says his expenses continue to rise. Diesel fuel for commercial boats was $3.79 per gallon in New Bedford on Wednesday and his boat burns around 600 gallons daily when out fishing.
“Yellowtail is in the southeast part (of Georges Bank) and pollock is in the Gulf of Maine, 170 miles apart,” he says. “I steam down there and if the wind changes the fish are gone. Then I have to go another 100 miles looking for cod.” Last year his fuel bill was $364,655, he said.
Under the sector management system, Adamczewski must also buy or lease additional fishing quota because the share he was allocated from National Marine Fisheries is insufficient to keep him on the water. “For my share, I’ve got enough for two trips and I’m done,” he said. The bulk of his fishing history, upon which quota is based, came from the Great South Channel but low stocks there means he now has to go to Georges for yellowtail. To do so he must lease quota. It cost Adamczewski $221,334 to lease quota from five other permit holders last year.
He has cut costs wherever possible. The crew was reduced to four. Hauling the boat out of the water to paint its bottom is a thing of the past. Now he hires a diver to scrub the hull and replace the zinc anodes (which protect the steel hull from corrosion) and Humbak goes to the shipyard every three years for new bottom paint.
His annual insurance on the boat is $45,000 and a marine mechanic costs $85 an hour. He has seen a lot of them lately since his last three trips have been cut short by mechanical breakdowns.
2012. Dow Jones Local Media Group, Inc