No piece of American coastline is nearer and dearer to my heart than Maine’s, where fishing villages sprout among the craggy rocks.
Nearly 18 years ago, as a cub newspaper reporter, I first wandered down to the docks at Cundy’s Harbor in Harpswell, Maine, home to a small fleet of draggers.
In the fishermen’s eyes, I hardly fit in: a “flatlandah from away” (translation: not only was I destined to be an outsider forever since my ancestors were not buried anywhere in Maine, but I grew up in the flatlands of Ohio.) And, a girl, to boot! (A triple whammy.)
But a stubborn girl, indeed. I wanted to hear their stories and kept showing up. Ultimately, they let me into their world and onto their boats to write about their lives, their work and their families right as New England’s traditional stocks ? cod, haddock and flounder ? were plummeting and federal regulators lowered the first of several hammers aimed at ending overfishing and rebuilding stocks.
Now, although New England’s fisheries have shown some signs of improvement, overall they are still struggling and the region is looking to catch-share management and another cut to fishing effort to help it turn the corner.
I support catch-shares in principal, and I support ending overfishing and bringing fisheries into balance.
But will this latest regulatory overhaul and the catch-share system help rebuild New England’s traditional fisheries? I don’t know, but I certainly hope ? and pray ? it will. Because for sustainably minded seafood buyers in the eastern United States, isn’t cod from the Gulf of Maine ? a stock larger than it’s been in 30 years ? more sustainable than cod sourced from halfway around the world?
And doesn’t the same go for Georges Bank cod stock? Today, Georges Bank cod is languishing, but once was so thick with fish Old World traders said they could walk upon them. To me, a rebuilt Georges Bank stock is part of the vision of sustainability.
And isn’t it better to be able to tell your customers who caught the fish you’re selling them? On the other side of the laborious, arcane details of fisheries management regulations, are people.
As I wrote about New England’s transition to catch shares for the April issue of SeaFood Business, I thought of those fishermen in Cundy’s Harbor, wondering how they’ve fared. I’m no longer a short drive away, so dialed up one of them ? except, technically speaking only, he’s no longer a fisherman. He and his wife made the heart-wrenching decision two years ago to sell the boat and get out of fishing. They’d survived many rounds of cuts and saw only more cuts coming to reach a higher bar for rebuilding stocks.
“We never saw the light at the end of the tunnel,” she says. Her husband earned his captain’s license and works commercial boats in the Gulf of Mexico. Their boys, who would have been fourth-generation fishermen, do the same.
But there are a few groundfishermen still working out of the harbor, and it still bustles with shrimpers and lobstermen. In the last decade, New England lost 41 percent of its groundfish boats, dropping from 870 boats in 1999 to 505 in 2008, according to Tom Nies, groundfish plan coordinator for the New England Fishery Management Council.
I asked him what seafood buyers could do to help bring about sustainable fish stocks in New England. His answer? First, support funding for strong science.
“If you want sustainable harvesting, we have to have good science on what’s out there and what’s available to be harvested,” said Nies. “Catch shares are not a panacea if you can’t set the [total allowable catch] right.”
Second, pay attention to the gray area. Sustainability is not a black-and-white issue, said Nies.
“If you’re trying to evaluate which fisheries are sustainable or not, don’t just look at their current point, look at whether progress is being made or not.”
The good news out of New England: Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank haddock stocks were declared rebuilt in the 2007 stock assessment. Plaice is nearly out of the overfished status. Redfish and Gulf of Maine cod, while not rebuilt, are no longer considered overfished. Scientists estimate the Gulf of Maine cod stock is larger than it’s been in 30 years, and Georges Bank yellowtail flounder is still overfished, but its levels have climbed to those of the early 1970s.
The bad news is that southern New England yellowtail flounder and winter flounder are still in bad shape, and Georges Bank cod is really struggling. Georges Bank winter flounder, witch flounder, northern windowpane flounder and Atlantic pollock were all recently declared overfished.
Nies urged buyers to pay attention to the nuances and reward progress.
It can’t hurt to say a little prayer that the catch-share system and this latest round of cuts will provide a light at the end of New England’s long fisheries struggle. Hopefully, when the stocks return, there will still be New England fishermen around to catch them.
