News

Feds OK giving bulk of $13.4M to fishermen

By Richard Gaines
Staff writer
Published: April 17, 2008

The federal government yesterday reportedly agreed to allow nearly all of a $13.4 million earmark secured by the state's U.S. senators for the hard-pressed Massachusetts groundfishing industry to go to the fishermen.

Sen. John Kerry's office said it's been told by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric and Administration that the state would be allowed to use the money as it wishes. Such a decision would be a capitulation for NOAA, which had been pressing to use much of the money to buy out fishermen and reduce the size of the fleet rather than subsidize their ability to fish.

"NOAA notified Sen. Kerry's office that it is going to accept the state proposal," Kerry's press secretary, Brigid O'Rourke, told the Times.

Monica Allen, a spokeswoman for NOAA in Washington, stopped short of confirming any acceptance, noting that NOAA just received the state's application Tuesday night.

"It's going through a technical review. We're moving it as quickly as possible," she said.

The distribution formula sent by the state Division of Marine Fisheries to NOAA proposed giving fishermen all but $820,000 of the $13.4 million appropriation in financial relief, or payments for fishermen's health insurance.

The state withheld $338,249 for organizing the application, vetting and appeals process required to qualify groundfishermen, mostly working from the ports of New Bedford, Gloucester and Chatham, for the aid. The state grudgingly also agreed to NOAA's claim to $481,751 for its grant administration and oversight.

NOAA's decision resolves a major policy impasse that had been building between the Bush administration's federal fishery regulators and a unified force of Massachusetts Democrats, led by Kerry and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.

The senators inserted the earmark for "the alleviation of economic impacts associated with Framework 42" — NOAA's most recent package of days-at-sea and fishing-grounds' restrictions. The restrictions devalued federal fishing permits and forced fishermen to borrow or mortgage property to acquire multiple permits to cobble together enough fishing time to make ends meet.

The senators placed the earmark for emergency aid after U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez last fall rejected Gov. Deval Patrick's request for $22 million in emergency relief and a declaration that NOAA policies had brought an economic disaster onto the state's fishermen and shoreside support services.

NOAA took control of the earmarked money in January after the budget bill that carried it was signed by the president. John Oliver, the agency's acting assistant administrator for fisheries, advised the state in writing that NOAA did not favor direct payments to fishermen.

"We do not believe they will benefit the fishermen in the long run," Oliver wrote to Paul Diodati, director of the state Division of Marine Fisheries.

Instead, Oliver said NOAA wanted to use the money on "capacity reduction," notably "buyouts" to reduce the number of active fishermen. He also suggested using some of the earmark for "counseling" fishermen who had been put out of work.

The goal of Framework 42 and preceding regulatory policies was to protect fragile stocks of the North Atlantic's great groundfish species — cod, haddock and flatfish — until they're recovered from overfishing.

In a February letter to the state Division of Marine Fisheries, Oliver said he would release the earmarked appropriation quickly if the state agreed to give no more than half of the $13.4 million directly to fishermen while reserving the bulk of the money for buyouts.

"Capacity reduction," he wrote, "is at the core of transitioning to a more stable fishing environment."

But Patrick, the congressional delegation, the Division of Marine Fisheries and the fishermen themselves disagreed and lobbied for direct aid to help sustain the fishing communities until stocks recovered and regulated fishing could expand again.

Two weeks ago — at a Gloucester public meeting called by Diodati to fine-tune the proposed distribution formula he would send to NOAA — one protesting fisherman carried a placard condemning NOAA's "occupational cleansing."

Diodati confessed the impossibility of an ideal formula for distributing the $14.3 million, having gleaned different input and priorities from fishermen in Gloucester, New Bedford and Plymouth. But after the meeting in Gloucester, he said he was not inclined to compromise with NOAA, which by Oliver's letter had indicated it would be willing to see half the appropriation go to fishermen.

"I don't think we'll be looking for middle ground," Diodati told the Times.

His final proposal to NOAA included $1.25 million for the labor crews that hire themselves out, including $500,000 in direct aid and $750,000 in health insurance.

The $11,325,000 in aid to boat owners would be distributed for the most part based on the number of full fishing or "A" days on their permits. The state program also allows for appeals of findings.

Diodati's narrative introduction to his proposal to NOAA, though tempered compared to recent condemnations of federal groundfishing regulations, still noted that the current system "is making it extremely difficult, especially for small-boat operations working off the Massachusetts coast, to conduct practical, economically-sound fishing operations."

Late last month, while Diodati was pondering the politics of the impasse with NOAA, a small groundfishing boat out of Gloucester sank just outside the harbor after remaining at sea for an extra day just to satisfy federal daily catch limits. The two-man crew was taken off the Miss Sonya by the Coast Guard just before it flipped over and went down.

The captain said he spent the last night on Georges Bank in a futile search for haddock that hadn't arrived yet after catching his two-day limit of cod and yellowtail in a matter of hours.

According to NOAA, there are about 400 commercial fishing boats left in Massachusetts from a fleet well more than twice that size before fishing regulations began in the 1980s.

Some see the historical sweep of federal policies as aimed at culling small fishermen out of the industry to allow for consolidation and conglomeratization. In Maine, many boat owners have appealed for buyouts, but in Massachusetts the bulk of survivors want to keep at it.

Coming in unpredictable waves that change rules for fishing often in midseason, NOAA's regulations have fractured the industry of mostly boat-owning entrepreneurs into almost as many business models as there are fishermen in Massachusetts.

Given the impact of the federal regulations, Kennedy urged NOAA to release "these funds without delay ... to those who need assistance, which was our intent."

Kerry yesterday credited NOAA's William Brennan, the deputy assistant secretary of commerce for international affairs, with helping to break the impasse and get the money on the way to fishermen.

"Last week, I met with Dr. Brennan, we talked about the urgent need to sort through the bureaucratic mess ... and I am grateful for his concern and swift action," Kerry said in an e-mail message to the Times.

Brennan, who recently was designated to coordinate research on climate change within the federal government, began work at NOAA with the fisheries service at Woods Hole.

Jackie Odell, executive director of the Gloucester-based Northeast Seafood Coalition, which represents boat owners and shoreside businesses, said her members "truly appreciate the support and relief that has been provided by Sen. Kennedy and Sen. Kerry."

The industry faces a pivotal moment in early August, when an assessment of environmental reports is due on the state of the fishery — and based on that evidence, whether further controls on fishing could be mandated.

Richard Gaines can be reached at rgaines@gloucestertimes.com