Some 200 people, mostly fishermen from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine, attended a January 19 hearing to defend the interests of individual working fishermen, as the council readied its ruling on management measures for cod fishing in the coming year. Small fishermen have borne the brunt of measures to replenish the cod stock in the Gulf of Maine, the body of water off the New England coast that stretches from Cape Cod to Maine. Limits on the size of catch, number of fishing days allowed, and the areas open to fishermen have driven many out of business.

For example, a few years ago the maximum daily catch per fisherman was 1,000 pounds; today it is 400. Certain areas of the Gulf of Maine are closed to cod fishing five months of the year. The areas targeted for closure by the council have been those closest to shore where fishermen with smaller boats operate.

Prior to the meeting, Paul Cohan, a fisherman from Gloucester and president of the Gulf of Maine Fisherman's Alliance, said they would push to keep the regulations as they are now, since other options included further restrictions. "Every single year they throw a few more restrictions on you," he said. "But you don't take 300 years of fishing pressure and neutralize it in a five-year span without basically shutting down the whole show, and there are people that would have that happen."

Backed by U.S. government statistics, the Gulf of Maine Fisherman's Alliance explained in a statement that with the measures already put in place a few years earlier "we are seeing a dramatic turnaround in the status of many stocks. Most noteworthy is the 21 percent increase in a stock of immediate concern, Gulf of Maine Cod."

More recent measures, the statement said, "have obviously been beneficial, however, their effects are yet to be evaluated due to 'data lag.' This lack of current quantification clearly leaves us shooting in the dark as more restrictions are blindly developed and implemented.

"Unless we act now to correct some of the deficiencies of our current policies," the statement continued, "we will lose the traditional New England Inshore Family Fisherman and all the cultural and economic fabric of our coastal tapestry."

Kevin Scola, a fisherman from Marshfield, Massachusetts, said that during the area closures last spring he did makeshift jobs to provide for his family. "I picked up cans. I got a job banging nails to buy my kid sneakers," Scola told the council, adding he "hadn't had a new pair of sneakers in four years."

Arguing against an option that would add another month of closure in an area vital to the inshore fisherman, Scola noted it is "another nail in our coffin. Everything has been targeting the inshore fisherman. Tell us face to face if you're trying to run us out."

This mounting pressure forces fishermen to take life-threatening risks. John Rosa, from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, took his boat 70 miles out to sea Christmas day—a day when there would be no one at sea to respond to a distress call, but also a time when the price of pollock, usually around 70 cents a pound goes up to nearly $1.80 a pound.

Two days after Christmas the Coast Guard rescued Rosa when his transmission went out and 14-to-18-foot waves were pushing him farther out to sea as his boat was taking in water. To save money he had not taken a crew member with him. During the 14 hours it took the Coast Guard to tow him to shore he stayed with his uninsured boat.

The council defeated a motion to recommend that the National Marine Fisheries Service maintain the status quo. They instead decided to close three areas in the Gulf of Maine for an additional month if 50 percent of the total catch limit was caught before July 31. Fishermen at the meeting said the trigger point would be hit.

The council also voted to allow party and charter boats to fish in the closed areas three months out of the year. Fishermen often point out the double standard applied by the council to them and businesses that operate party and charter operations.

The Gulf of Maine Fisherman's Alliance is planning a "Big money raffle and auction" at the Elks Club in Gloucester the evening of February 18 to "Help Support Our Local Fishermen."

Ted Leonard is a member of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees  
 
 
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