Fishermen, the new bycatch
Monday,18 October,2010 08:42:37
Come the first of the year, catch shares will go into effect for West Coast bottomfish such as blackcod, bocaccio (rockfish) and flounder.
I am not a champion of catch shares, but that’s not to say they can’t work in a properly developed program. In other words, one that looks nothing like the program on the East Coast.
However, I remain skeptical, because the imperative behind catch shares in 2010 isn’t maximizing a scarce resource but rationalizing fisheries — eliminating fishermen.
Adherents assert that catch shares promote a safer, more orderly fishery, less bycatch and better prices — which are all desirable outcomes.
What we are finding on the East Coast, however, is that there is a cost to be paid for all of this orderliness: In New Bedford, Mass., the nation’s leading port, two out of three groundfish boats are tied up.
Gloucester, Mass., is hurting and so are New Hampshire and Maine, not because there are no fish but because so many fishermen lost the ability to make a living as a result of the metrics of reallocation, which has fallen heavily on the shoulders of fishermen with smaller vessels.
The notion that the only way you can protect fish is through catch shares is a canard. We’ll take a little disorder if it means life for coastal communities.
Thank you for your time.
Jerry Fraser
Editor & Publisher, National Fisherman
www.nationalfisherman.com
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Tuesday,12 October,2010 15:05:39
Many groups that advocate “sustainability” show little, if any, interest in what fishermen have to say.
But how quick they are to seize upon whatever is floating about the dominant media culture that disparages fishing! Hence, canards about the elimination of 90 percent of predator species and mass fish extinction by 2048 continue to percolate long after they have been relinquished by their erstwhile proponents.
On the other hand, many groups is by no means all. This week the Chefs Collaborative, which describes itself as a “network of chefs that fosters a sustainable food system through advocacy, education, and collaboration,” held its national summit in Boston and for my money made good on its commitment to education.
I wasn’t totally surprised. I have often found that food writers possess a much more nuanced understanding of fisheries than do many of the writers who cover fishery management.
At the morning plenary session Monday, a panelist and chef suggested that seafood menus such as the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s do not stand up to scrutiny. A panel on the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon Spill offered divergent but well-articulated differences of opinion on seafood quality in the Gulf of Mexico. And a panel on the sustainability of a variety of New England seafood species argued for communication between chefs and harvesters.
Which, of course, will beget communication between chefs and diners! I came away from the summit with newfound optimism that reasonable arguments about the use of marine resources can, in fact, reach the ears of consumers.
Thank you for your time.
Jerry Fraser
Editor & Publisher, National Fisherman
www.nationalfisherman.com
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