DAN'S PAPERS, February 19, 2010 Page 15 www.danshamptons.com
BUSINESS Givin’ You the
Local Fishing Industry Catches a Break
Photo by T.J. Clemente
By T.J. Clemente Fishing has been a way of life on the East End for centuries. Legend has it that Viking fishing crews may have been the first to see these shores, but then too, they most likely saw the Native Americans already here, fishing for food for their settlements. In 1800, when the world’s population was 900 million, over-fishing was almost impossible. However today, with a world population of 6.709 BILLION (2008 U.N. figure), over fishing is within the realm of posBoats in Montauk sibility. With super-fishing vessels from Japan and Russia playing by their own rules, and the efficiency of the wise, seasoned American commercial fishermen, the Federal Government and state fisheries departments took steps to limit fish catches, shorten seasons, and created paperwork meant to control the fish population, protect it, and perhaps even replenish it. However, bureaucrats are known to create policy based on numbers that have little to do with the reality of fishermen on the open seas. East End fishermen have cursed punishing winter storms while doing their jobs, while we benefit from their labors. In the last five years, disaster struck in two main areas—the fluctuating cost of fuel at historic high prices, and bizarre government regulation lowering catches. Recently, commercial fishermen from around the nation, including Montauk, went to Washington to protest having their hands tied as they compete with foreign fishing fleets playing by other rules, rules often more lenient than ours. The main culprit seems to be the 1976 Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries and Conservation Act, which started the present clustering of paper work, rules and restrictions that seem to have been overseen with overzealous enforcement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA.) But just this January, the U.S. Dept. of Commerce Inspector General’s office found that perhaps fishermen in the Northeast had been over-fined by the NOAA. Now spotlighted as being over officious, the NOAA has become more reasonable in interpreting the laws and enforcing them—not to amass monies from heavy fines, but to regulate commercial fishing in the Northeast. One new change is the catch limit of fluke. Until now, commercial fishermen were bound by a 70 pound daily limit for the fish, but the new regulation allows fishermen an aggregate 1,200 pounds of fluke per week. Now, captains of vessels that used to take up to 15 hours to get out and back to the fishing grounds won’t have to curtail their work to stay within that 24-hour period of a per day catch. Once at sea, they can fish as long as they’re able, until the full weekly quota is reached—without fear of a crippling fine. Local Montauk fishermen believe this gives smaller commercial vessels a better chance at competing against the larger, faster boats that had a huge advantage under the daily rule. Both Congressman Tim Bishop and State
Assemblyman Fred Thiele have been on the forefront fighting the Obama Administration on the daily quota issue that came to a head when fuel topped $5 a gallon last year, leaving many commercial vessels in Montauk boatyards. I was in Liar’s Saloon last winter, listening to a crew of five who were out fishing for a week to reach their quota. After selling all the fish, each man had to chip in $147 to pay for the fuel! That was a bleak moment in the commercial fishing industry in
Montauk, as it was on the Shinnecock Inlet. With the “Cumulative Quota” program still deemed experimental, fishermen are hoping to raise some revenue to make much needed repairs on their aging fleet of commercial vessels. The recent business environment made investing in these costly repairs nearly impossible. Montauk fisherman Jeff Bline told me, “When you’re at sea in a bad winter storm and something critical breaks, you don’t call anyone on a phone. You got to fix it.” Then he smiled, commenting on fishing way off shore in harsh conditions, “There are no atheists in a storm.” It’s good for the East End economy that these intrepid fishermen have finally caught a break from the bureaucrats.
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