Fish council rep under fire from boat owners in hometown

A New England Fishery Management Council member already at the center of a dispute over scallop allocations is now under fire in her own community and state.

Several fishing boat owners are challenging the claims of Sally McGee, the Environmental Defense Fund senior staffer who also heads the New England Council's Scallop Committee, after she said in an interview on the EDF Web site that "dwindling fish populations" have nearly destroyed the "once vibrant" fishing community of Stonington, Conn.

Eight fishing boat-business owners who work out of Stonington, interviewed by Richard Gracek, a fisherman and sometimes columnist, objected to McGee's implications that some stocks are nearly gone in Stonington and across New England.

The fishermen interviewed by Gracek also questioned McGee's knowledge of fishing and the waters off Mystic, where both Gracek and McGee live.

None of the fishermen recalled ever seeing McGee on the docks or at the port — except for one time when she was pitching "catch shares," the fishery regulatory scheme set to go into effect in New England in May. Under catch shares, fishermen are allocated an overall catch and fish for shares in cooperatives, or "sectors." The sectors, however, are also tradeable commodities, and that has raised economic red flags among critics who fear the format sets the stage for large-scale buyers to essentially force small, independent boats out of business.

McGee, who represents Connecticut on the New England management council, said she has tried to engage Gracek and other fishermen in discussions about the fishery and its future, and first got to know one of them — the venerable Arthur Medeiros — in 2003.

"I am always willing to meet with anyone about fisheries," McGee said in a telephone interview.

McGee was at the center of a raging dispute with fishing interests centered in New Bedford before her Jan. 7 interview on the EDF Web site drew out fishermen from Stonington and neighboring Mystic.

That dispute centered on her motion, approved by a small margin at the November council meeting, to cut back the allowable catch of scallops.

Gracek reported to the Times that "the statement which raised the ire of the Stonington captains was Ms. McGee's response to the interviewer's question, 'Why do you think fisheries management in New England needs to change?'"

To that, McGee declared, "Many of the New England fisheries are in very bad shape. The closest fishing port to my house in Mystic is in Stonington. This once vibrant fishing community is now a shadow of what it once was because of dwindling fish populations. It makes me sad ..."

Gracek then presented a series of interviews. At their ends, seven of the nine were quoted as saying much the same as Dick Bardwell, a former fisherman and current dock master at the Stonington Town dock for the last 30 years.

"I never met Sally McGee and never saw her down here at the dock," Bardwell told Gracek.

Captain Peter Bessette, owner of the Miss Karyn for 34 years, said McGee's comment about "dwindling fish populations" is simply "not true."

"It's the regulations that are gnawing at our business and preventing any young blood from entering the fishery," said Bessette. "It's not the fish, there's plenty of fish."

Mike Gambardella and Johnny Guerrieri of Gambardella Wholesale Fish since 1982, said they remember better times.

"My family has been in the business for over 100 years and it might all end with me," said Gambardella. "My grandfather and my father ... wouldn't believe what the government regulations have done to the business they worked hard to build. Fish stocks are back, but tons of imported tilapia are filling in for the lack of healthy local product."

"Fishery management policy is putting us all out of business," said Capt. Bobby Guzzo, owner of the Jenna Lynn II, who has fished commercially from Stonington for 30 years.

Manny Soares recently sold his 73-foot boat despite the fact that "I never saw so many fish in my 34 years of fishing."

Arthur Medeiros, now retired, said he had met McGee when she was here to talk about catch shares.

"The fish are back. Yellowtail flounder are back, the fluke are back, the cod are in the spring," said Medeiros, whose family has been at the core of Stonington's fishing fleet for decades. "But (regulators) won't let us catch enough to make a living."

Stonington, known especially for Stonington scallops, is home to Connecticut's last surviving commercial fishing fleet.

Gracek wrote that the fishermen of Stonington "were not happy about" catch shares which are phasing in this May for one segment of the groundfish fleet that has organized into business cooperatives or sectors. The national policy of the Obama administration is to have catch shares approved wherever possible.

That policy was promoted most ardently by EDF and its former vice chairwoman, Jane Lubchenco. Once in office as the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Lubchenco organized a task force to promote catch shares. The report is now out for public comment.

As to the scallop dispute, the New England Fishery Management Council last November narrowly approved a motion by McGee to reduce scallop fishing below levels recommended by an independent scientific committee — an action that would reduce catches and revenues, by 25 percent according to one learned estimate.

New Bedford Mayor Scott Lang protested in a letter to Secretary of Commerce Gary Lock and filed a freedom of information request.

Lang asked for documents that might show how McGee's employer, EDF, and other special interests — notably the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen's Association — influenced the decision to cut the scallop harvest.

John Pappalardo, the policy director for the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen, is chairman of New England Fishery Management Council. In that position, he made a unilateral decision against requests from more than a dozen members of Congress, led by Barney Frank, and more than 1,000 scallop industry figures in a petition to have the council revisit the scallop catch vote at the January meeting in Portsmouth, N.H.

Only after he was called to a meeting with Gov. Deval Patrick last Sunday did Pappalardo agree to allow the council to revisit the scallop catch vote.

Richard Gaines can be reached at 978-283-7000, x3464, or via e-mail at rgaines@gloucestertimes.com.

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