Participants in a fisheries forum Monday night discussed ways to improve the beleaguered catch share system of fisheries management.
The forum held at the Portsmouth Public Library was part of the Who Fishes Matters Tour, which is promoting a dialogue across New England about better policies for the fishing industry.
The talk came in the context of upcoming discussions at the New England Fishery Management Council regarding Amendment 18 to the groundfish plan, which Brett Tolley of the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance said contains provisions that could protect fleet diversity and limit any one entity’s ability to control too much of the total allowable catch.
Hampton fisherman and appointed member of the management council David Goethel attended Monday’s discussion. He said the council will begin considering Amendment 18 on Wednesday.
“I’m here to listen,” he said. “I wouldn’t even hazard a guess (as to what the council will decide).”
The catch share, or sector management, system replaced the old days at sea system of regulating fisheries in New England in 2010. Two years later, fishermen and regulators say there is evidence that the catch share system is exacerbating the consolidation of the fishing fleet that has already been occurring for more than a decade. There were 1,200 groundfish boats in 2001, and fewer than 450 in 2012.
Ellen Goethel, a marine biologist and wife of David Goethel, said that across the globe, when catch share systems are implemented without safeguards, it leads to the collapse of the small-boat fleet. That is because the catch share system allows for the sale or lease of quotas, which often end up in the hands of the highest bidders such as multinational companies.
The local ramifications of such a system could be devastating for both fishermen and the communities they serve, said Ellen Goethel, who used as an example New Zealand, where caught fish are exported and locals are unable to purchase fresh fish.
“You need safeguards,” she said, adding that the catch share system in New England originally had some of those safeguards, but they were voted out by council members that she accused of having a “vested interest” in doing away with them.
Amendment 18 would add protections to ensure the survival of the region’s small-boat fishermen. They include quota caps, quota set-asides for future generations of fishermen, owner-operator incentives, leasing provisions and in-shore, off-shore considerations. All were discussed at length, with participants bringing up pros and cons of each.
The debate made clear that the fishery management council has no easy decisions when it considers the amendment this week, but Eliot, Maine, fisherman Glenn Robbins noted what is at stake.
“The big boats are taking over and they’re killing the little guys off,” he said.
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