NEWPORT, R.I. — The New England Fishery Management Council has removed a powerful disincentive for fishermen who have chosen to remain outside the catch share system and instead fish independently in the common pool next year.

But the margin of the vote Wednesday night — against running the fishing clock at double time against the common poolers for time spent on the inshore grounds — was most narrow, with the recommendation from the council's Groundfish Committee rejected 8-7 with one abstention.

Moreover, the council has given Patricia Kurkul, the National Marine Fisheries Service's regional administrator, nearly limitless authority to step in to change the fishing rules as she sees fit at any time after midnight on May 1, the starting date of the fishing year that will debut a partial catch share regulatory system with fishermen working in voluntary fishing cooperatives known as sectors.

The council, in its three-day meeting here, turned against the 2-1 differential counting of days at sea on the permits of the common poolers during inshore fishing trips. But the council did put limits on catches of cod and pollock, as Kurkul requested, acting on recommendations by fishermen involved in the sector system.

The council imposed an 800-pound-a-day trip limit on Gulf of Maine cod, and a 1,000-pound-a-day limit on pollock for the common poolers.

These limits replaced the 2,000-pound-a-day limit on cod that the council had approved in June. The council had initially given the independents carte blanche on catching pollock. Concerns had been registered with Kurkul that the initial rules were encouraging derby fishing on the two stocks which had been weakened by overfishing.

The revised deadline for joining sectors is today. Tom Nies, the council's executive director, advised the council that some fishermen had taken advantage of the extended deadline to join sectors.

"Additional vessels are entering," said Nies, but he said numbers of new signees would not be available until after today's deadline.

At last report, many weeks ago, about half the permit-holders had taken a place within the catch share sectors — though they covered more than 90 percent of the catch history.

New Hampshire Councilor David Goethel, a commercial fisherman, supported the differential counting restriction for the common pool and warned that, if too many fishermen remain in the pool, they could embark in a "derby," the term used to describe a race to catch the most fish under an effort-control system.

Goethel said he wanted all fishermen to know that Kurkul had the authority to override the council vote against the differential counting and would be encouraged to use it, lest the catch limit on cod and pollock be reached in the early days of the new fishing system and thus shut down the fishery for the sectors.

But Vito Giacalone, a founder of the Northeast Seafood Coalition and an innovative force in the organization of 13 sectors, said yesterday that giving Kurkul the authority to tighten the rules next year would encourage the derby the council should be trying to avoid.

In addition, Giacalone said the differential counting "feels punitive."

Council member Jim Odlin, a Maine boat owner, agreed.

"I'm wondering if we're going too far, way too far," he said.

Giacalone said he favored tightening up limits on cod and pollock.

"That's all we were looking to achieve," he said. "I hope the 2-1 counting and the mid-season authority (to change the rules) are removed."

Nies, the council's executive director, also advised that giving Kurkul the authority to change the rules would encourage the derby they were seeking to prevent.

"People may be fearful of decisions (Kurkul) the regional administrator may make, creating the derby fishery," Nies said during his briefing to the council before the votes Wednesday night. The session marked the middle day of the three-day meeting; the council had also made decisions on herring and scallops that had implications for the groundfishery.

The council voted to create a comprehensive bycatch monitoring program for herring and approved a significant reduction in the catch limits for the forage fish. The limits were loosened somewhat, but still represent intense reductions that were predicted to cause hardship to the lobster industry that uses herring as bait.

The council also agreed to consider stretching out the recovery timetable for yellowtail flounder, a decision that tacitly reflects the need of the scallop fishery to be able to pull in yellowtail as bycatch.

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