Print this Article
Email this Article
May 1: A new and controversial fishery management system, known as catch shares, is introduced to regulate the New England groundfishery. Fishermen form cooperatives, known as sectors, with each sector allotted a percentage of the total allowable catch. Many in the industry predict ruin, particularly for smaller vessels.
May 8: New Bedford joins Gloucester in a federal lawsuit to block the implementation of catch shares on both legal and constitutional grounds. Industry representatives from Rhode Island, North Carolina, New York, New Hampshire and several Massachusetts ports are listed as plaintiffs.
May 12: Political pressure on the federal government builds. US Secretary of Commerce Gary F. Locke meets on Capitol Hill with two-dozen congressmen and senators from coastal states who are seeking an increase in restrictive catch limits.
Aug. 27: As the economic effects of catch shares become apparent, a fleet of New Bedford fishing vessels gains national attention by steaming to Vineyard Haven to protest catch shares while President Obama is vacationing on the island with his family.
Aug. 29: In a special report, the Standard-Times reveals that catch shares are exacting a heavy toll on local fishermen and waterfront businesses. Only 31 of the 99 boats in New Bedford enrolled in sectors have gone fishing since May 1.
Sept. 23: Inspector General Todd J. Zinser publishes the results of his review of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Enforcement Programs. Fishermen have complained bitterly for years about heavy-handed treatment from the agency. The damning report substantiates much of their claims and finds evidence of abusive practices, excessive fines and overzealous enforcement directed against the fishing industry by the Office of Law Enforcement.
Sept. 27: Secretary Locke comes to Massachusetts, where he meets with lawmakers and fishermen on Beacon Hill to hear first hand of abuses by the NOAA Office of Law Enforcement.
Oct. 1: Gov. Patrick sides with the industry and requests Locke to revise the annual catch limits.
Oct. 14: Locke indicates a willingness to comply if there is “sufficient economic and sound scientific data available.”
Oct. 22: UMass Dartmouth’s School of Marine Science and Technology and the Massachusetts Department of Marine Fisheries analyses the data and presents the findings to the Mayor’s Ocean and Fisheries Council. Mayor Lang expresses confidence in the outcome.
“This is well-grounded and thought out. We’re not using any numbers other than their numbers.” Lang says.
Oct. 29: Gov. announces he is seeking a $40 million aid package — $21 million in economic relief and a 30 percent increase in catch limits on groundfish, worth up to $19 million.
Nov. 5: Patrick submits the request, which includes the SMAST scientific and economic analyses supporting the state’s argument.
Nov. 9: The Standard-Times sponsors a forum on the crisis at the Fairfield Inn on the waterfront, attended by regulators, fishermen and the general public. An overflow crowd hears powerful testimony from disenfranchised fishermen.
Nov. 28: A Standard-Times feature reviews the effects of catch shares on South Shore fishermen. Only 10 of 23 fishing boat owners in Sector 10 are still working.
Dec. 10: The Mayor’s Council slams Secretary Locke’s failure to respond in a timely manner. With 60 percent of the fishing year elapsed, the groundfish fleet has managed to land only 18 percent of the total allowable catch for the year. “A bureaucratic agenda has decided to collapse the fleet,” says Mayor Scott Lang.
Jan. 7: Secretary Locke summarily rejects the governor’s report on the grounds that the data was insufficient to warrant either a fishery disaster or a commercial fishery failure. In a written response to Gov. Patrick, Locke concludes that in “the absence of new scientific data I am consequently unable to exercise my emergency rule authority.”
Jan. 13: An opinion piece by U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., published in The Standard-Times condemns both Locke’s “adamant refusal to consider the scientific evidence” as well as the “callous and dismissive tone of NOAA’s response.”
Looking ahead:
JAN. 25: Mayor Scott Lang’s Ocean and Fisheries Council meets in New Hampshire at the Sheraton Portsmouth Harborside Hotel. The New England Fisheries Management Council is meeting there over three days and the mayor hopes that NEFMC members will be interested in the reaction from New Bedford on Secretary Locke’s response to Governor Patrick.
March 15: The federal lawsuit brought by the cities of New Bedford and Gloucester, challenging the implementation of catch shares, will have its first hearing in U.S. District Court in Boston when Judge Rya Zobel will listen to oral arguments.
— DON CUDDY
Print this Article
Email this Article