A decision made by the New England Fishery Management Council, Jan. 31, to severely reduce quotas for the cod fisheries, could drive Maine groundfishermen out of business.
That was the opinion expressed by Glen Libby, president of the Midcoast Fishermen’s Coop and Port Clyde Fresh Catch.
The new reductions set an annual catch limit, or ACL, that is 77 percent of last year’s for Gulf of Maine cod and 61 percent for Georges Bank cod. In the Gulf of Maine that translates to a new quota of 830 metric tons, down from an allowable catch of 3699 tons last year. The actual Gulf of Maine cod catch for 2012 was 1889 tons.
Other recent cuts have targeted haddock, flounder and other bottom-dwelling groundfish fisheries with cuts ranging from 10 to 71 percent of the previous year’s catch limit.
NEFMC Groundfish Advisory Panel Chairman Bill Gerencer, a former commercial fisherman from Bowdoin who now works as a fish buyer, said there “has clearly been overfishing by the commercial sectors.”
“We’ve got a lot bigger problems than that right now,” Gerencer said. “We put in such strict management practices that the fleet is minimal compared to what we had in the ’80s.” Under those strict practices, such as limits to the total days at sea a boat can fish and the more recent catch shares system, “We’ve underharvested the ACL on every species,” he said.
The number of permits issued was 1100 close to a decade ago only. Now there are 400 permits, with approximately 250 being active.
“Your next step is closing down the fishery altogether,” Gerencer said.
Gerencer said the numbers used to set catch limits are mathematical projections that may have no basis in fact.
“What’s going on now is that we manage in the dark,” he said. “We have no idea how many fish are out there or how few fish are out there.”
He said the margin of error in the mathematical models would be “thrown out” in most scientific studies, but provides the “best available science” that is required to be used by regulators under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.
“The numbers are out of whack,” Gerencer said. He said stock size estimates are based on four variables: the total of landings plus estimated discards, total reported catch, twice yearly surveys and natural mortality that is consistently estimated at 20 percent of total population per year.
Because landings and catch data have been historically flawed, regulators rely heavily on the semi-annual surveys when they set catch allowances. Gerencer said the semi-annual surveys are flawed, in part, because the equipment used is not the same as that used by fishermen.
“The new boat catches twice the fish that the old one did per tow, but if you don’t use the same net and gear its not consistent,” Gerencer said. “They’re not fishing the same way with the same boat.”
Gerencer said the limits are not working because regulators don’t have a true picture of the resource they are charged with managing and because fish species don’t travel in discrete populations.
“They all come up in the net together,” he said.
If supported by federal regulators, the cuts would take effect May 1.
While the limits were set for cod, they will have the effect of further limiting haddock and pollock fishing, since the species all end up in the same nets, Libby said.
Projected revenues could be cut by 33 percent, from about $90 million in 2011 to about $60 million in 2013, according to news stories that appeared after the decision.
Fallout from the cuts would also be felt in processing and other related industries.
Gerencer said he thinks the fish will come back. Comparison data for previous years show healthy stocks for hake, redfish, pollock and winter flounder – also called blackback.
Libby, who served on NEFMC between 2009-2012, said the new rules call for fishermen to pay part of the cost of the observers who monitor the catch at sea
“Basically they shut down fishing,” Libby said Jan. 31. “If you’re out for four days an extra thousand dollars is pretty much all your profit.” He said the observer program is necessary, “but it’s got to be completely overhauled and costs have to be reduced.”
Meanwhile, Libby said the fee for observers is an additional hardship, on top of the catch limit cuts.
“It’s real stupid to charge fishermen something they can’t afford and expect them to pay it,” he said. Libby said larger boats might be able to meet the added cost, but smaller operations would be devastated.
“The cuts in quota and the diminished opportunity to access healthy stock is going to be a real killer,” Libby said. “Maybe we should send people out to catch dogfish, squid, skates and redfish. There’s plenty of those and there’s a market for them.”