BRETTON WOODS, N.H. — An emissary from the federal administrator for fisheries came here yesterday with praise for the New England industry's struggle with — and cautious embrace of — market privatization or regulatory catch shares.

But Monica Medina deflected a direct question about the willingness of the Obama administration to help finance a buyout program that would fuel a radical downsizing of the fleet.

That is the intended result of converting the New England fishery from traditional to market principles. Most estimates here put the culling at 50 percent, more or less, and have raised flags of social and cultural dislocations with or without a buyout.

"When you go down this road to a catch share system," said Tom Ancona, a West Coast fisherman who has been involved in the long conversion of the ground fishery to catch share market principles, "it's meant to make some changes, hopefully for the better. But you're struggling to keep things the same.

"The communities, the fishermen, there will be winners and losers," Ancona counseled New Englanders who are about to convert the top end of the ground fishery to catch shares next spring through a system of voluntary fishing cooperatives known as sectors. "You can't maintain status quo and make changes."

An unknown number of fishermen will continue to work under effort controls, but the essential catch share conversion vehicle — known as Amendment 16 — was voted last summer and has been submitted by Jane Lubchenco, the administrator for fisheries, to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke for final approval.

The existing system of ever-more draconian effort controls — such as limiting fishermen's access areas and days at sea — satisfied almost nobody and left the fleet, already about half the size of a decade ago, working on a handful of days at sea with leasing from dormant permits required for survival.

Catch shares, Medina explained, "means potentially harder times ahead before we get to the better times."

"We don't want to see this policy wipe out communities," she said. "This policy is not intended to industrialize or change the fundamental nature of the fisheries or the communities. Hopefully, if we can get through the design and implementation, we can get to better times. We don't want this policy to be harmful."

For the survivors in a radical catch share rationalization, the prize is a solid income in a stabilized industry with fewer boats.

Vito Calomo, a former Gloucester fisherman and now a member of the Massachusetts Fishery Recovery Commission, told Medina any successful program required a level of trust that does not exist today between the industry and its regulators.

"There is big divide sometimes between Washington and the rest of the country," Medina said. "New England is never far from our mind. We want to create environment you need. We hope there won't be bumps in the road, but we know there will be will."

Maggie Raymond, executive director of the Associated Fisheries of Maine, said she believes the conservative allocation made for the onset of catch share sector fishing next summer would ensure widespread failure of the system.

Ancona reported that the Pacific transition, which has been underway for nearly seven years, was aided by a decision to take 50 percent of the quota of defunct boats, and redistribute it on a per capita basis to give even marginal participants in the privatized system enough capacity to have a chance of surviving.

A buyout, however, was cited as an essential element to the seven-year effort of the Pacific Fishery Management Council to bring catch shares to its ground fishery, and has been a long sought salve for the fast-shrinking fleet of boats fishing the Gulf of Maine by Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine.

The Gloucester-based Northeast Seafood Coalition, the leading industry group of the region, also has sought federal buyout funds. Such a bill — seeking some $156.4 million in "stimulus" money to downsize and modernize the nation's original industry popped out at the end of 2008, with $100 million of that money pegged for boat buyouts. But it was quickly shelved, with the late Sen. Edward Kennedy at the forefront.

Jim Odlin, who owns and operates a commercial fleet in Maine, put the question directly to Medina after she completed her brief remarks and invited questions.

"One thing started to come to me," said Odlin, who is a member of the New England council. "I'm very interested in a buyout. It's the fair way. My question is: Is there possibility that you and administration can help move that alone?"

"It's up to you (the council)," Medina answered. She went on to say onus was on the council — an appointed, grass roots body of fishermen, environmentalists and government officials — to decide how it wants to reach the fishery recovery goals of the reauthorized Magnuson-Stevens Act.

"We'll help you get it done," she said, without leaving any hints about the possible availability of federal funding for buying boats to allow exiting fishermen a safety net.

Selected by Jane Lubchenco, the administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration from the Pew Environment Group, to head a "Catch Share Task Force," Medina was the featured speaker in the second day of a catch shares workshop here at the Mount Washington Hotel, where the allied nations in 1944 set up the post-war monetary system.

The two-day event, co-sponsored by the New England Fishery Management Council and a fisheries leadership and sustainability coalition that includes the Environmental Defense Fund, brought catch shares experts to the White Mountains from as far away as New Zealand, to offer advice and counsel to the New Englanders on the verge of diving into the catch share format.

There are only a handful of catch share systems in the U.S. and perhaps 100 globally, but most are in place in advanced nations.

Medina's presence underscored the commitment of the Obama administration to catch shares, a system that was hatched in the Environmental Defense Fund for American adaptation.

Lubchenco lent her political and academic weight to a policy research paper sponsored by EDF in the transition period to the onset of the Obama era.

Pew has continued to push out scientific research papers that purport to prove that catch shares are the answer to fishing problems, but an increasing amount of the supporting science and data has come under fire.

Richard Gaines can be reached at rgaines@gloucestertimes.com