Ebb & Flow
Could two more slices of baloney soon be added to the already meaty fisheries regulatory sandwich?
Some in the Massachusetts lobster industry want to promote and trademark the state's lobsters with a specific lobster band. Meanwhile, groundfishermen fear that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and National Marine Fisheries Service are gearing up to impose still more regulations on fishing on Stellwagen Bank.
Green bands
Using specifically-marked lobster bands became an industry requirement for harvesters in the United States and Canada a couple of years ago. Now, many in the Massachusetts lobster industry want to replace ther general "USA — Wild Caught" bands with a state-specific promotional one such as the one Maine lobstermen began using over a year ago.
The new band is green and has "Massachusetts" and a whale's tail printed on it. Those in the Massachusetts industry hope customers will want its lobsters because the state has already forced all of its lobstermen to use whale-safe gear, even on rocky terrain, in inshore areas that are rarely, if ever, inhabited by whales.
Not all Massachusetts lobstermen are happy about the state's blanket whale-safe gear requirement. The sinking ground line has already created more frequent and harder ground-line hang-downs for many coastal harvesters, resulting in a safety hazard for them, added gear losses, and extra wear and tear on their boats and hauling equipment.
For those very reasons, Maine's lawmakers and lobster associations are fighting for a floating groundline exemption for their coastal, rocky areas. Maine has long been the leader for sensible lobster regulations.
Some industry members also find the green band burlesque on at least two fronts. Many Massachusetts lobster dealers annually buy truckloads of Maine and Canadian lobsters to help fill their orders, and they could easily re-band those critters, and who would know the difference?
In addition, often 40 percent or more of the lobsters landed in Massachusetts during the warm water months (also peak tourist season) find their way to Canadian lobster processors instead of consumers' plates because of their soft shells. The processors care about price and not about whether the lobsters originate from a state that uses whale-safe gear.
More groundfishermen fears
The Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary has been holding public comment meetings recently about a draft management plan for the traditional fishing ground. These have quickly heightened local and neighboring groundfishermen's fears of added rules or even loss of another fishing area.
Fishermen have already lost inshore and offshore grounds to the federal government and lately to a pair of LNG companies, who have been permitted by the government to set up off-loading stations near, of all places, the sanctuary.
"The sanctuary is a pretty tired place," said Craig MacDonald, superintendant of the sanctuary, a branch of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Among many things, the plan "is a blueprint for future action. It does not exclude fishermen from the sanctuary, but it does look at how things can be done in a more environmentally sustainable way. If changes are warranted, the sanctuary has every intention of working with the NEFMC (New England Fisheries Management Council) and NOAA/NMFS," MacDonald said.
But, groundfishermen have already lost out on past National Marine Fisheries Service assurances, especially after the service told them their log book data wouldn't be used against them and later used it to determine the time and locations of the inshore rolling closures off of Cape Ann to protect spawning cod.
Most of these fishermen believe they need access to Stellwagen Bank, and they have already lost enough fishing areas. They further believe more fishery regulations are unnecessary since the bank is still productive, their fleet has been down-sized, and they are already regulated to near economic unfeasibility, unlike the other sanctuary and adjacent area users — recreational fishermen, whale watchers, divers, ferries, and even LNG companies.
Fishermen wonder how the sanctuary can even consider further regulating them.
The bank "is as full of life as it's ever been," said B.G. Brown, a local gillnet and longline fisherman.
Draggerman "Naz" Sanfilippo added, "I've fished there 35 years, and there's more codfish on that bank now than ever. Years ago, we (the draggermen) had to make 3- to 5-hourlong tows (with their otter trawls), and now we are making 5- to 10-minute-long tows."
"There's more codfish, and they are bigger," further stated Jimmy Santapaola, a gillnet fisherman.
His 17-year-old son and deckhand, Andy, has even noticed; "They've (the codfish) gotten thicker in my lifetime."
"There isn't 10 percent of the (gillnet) gear there (on the bank) now than there used to be," said the older Santapaola.
Draggerman Jim Ford added, "There are only so many of us fishermen left, and we are getting shaken out quickly."
The National Marine Fisheries Services not only restricts fishing time, areas, gear and quarry sizes and daily catches, but also tracks vessel movements. The fixed gear guys even have to work marine mammal-safe equipment on Stellwagen Bank. In addition, the bank is only open to groundfishing from Dec. 1 through March 31 and June 1 through Sept. 30. That part of the bank where the large cod live, dubbed "down the rock pile" by the fishermen, is permanently closed to them.
Part of the draft management plan addresses habitat and discards at the sanctuary. The groundfishermen haven't been able to fully win with the habitat and whale issues there, at least in the eyes of most scientists, regulators and conservation groups. They deem whale-safe mobile gear (otter trawls) habitat unfriendly, while bottom-kind fixed gear (especially gillnets) is deemed whale unfriendly.
Discards can be a problem at the sanctuary, and any other fishing area, because federal law limits daily catches to 800 pounds of cod and 250 pounds of yellowtail, forcing groundfishermen to throw back surplus fish. Gillnet fishermen constantly adjust their number of working nets, and draggermen shorten their tows to alleviate discards. An abundance of fish on the bank makes not exceeding daily limits difficult, if not impossible.
Most groundfishermen believe continued access to the bank is critical to the survival of their industry, its infrastructure and their community.
"It's sustained Gloucester and the surrounding communities or over 400 years," Sanfilippo said. Brown added, "Ninety-five percent of the small (fishing) boats spend 90 percent of their time on Stellwagen. It has been one of the best areas to fish."
"Shutting down Stellwagen would certainly put me out of business. A lot of little guys are in the same boat," he said.
The sanctuary covers all of southern Jeffry's Ledge. "If a closure goes into effect, that would leave us no place to go but offshore. That could be dangerous in the fall and winter. We are not an offshore boat," explained Ford, speaking for his crew. Ford's Lisa Ann II measures under 60-feet long.
"If the bank closed, we would be standing in line at the homeless shelter," Santapaola said.
