Al Conti, owner
of Snug Harbor Marina, South Kingstown, RI prepares his notes before presenting
at the Fluke Symposium.
Fluke Symposium big success
So imagine you are a fish manager. Your job is to manage the fish resource. If fish are plentiful and regulations are too
tight the resource may be over regulated as the resource is not being used at
its maximum sustainable level. This
makes fishermen furious. And understandably so, because this is the way they make
a living. Often times, it is the way
their father, uncles and grandfathers made their living too.
On the flip side, if a species is
overfished, if they are on the decline or beyond sustainable levels you are in
real trouble. There may be too many
boats fishing for too few fish or the science/data you were given to calculate
the number of fish that can be taken was bad.
It is likely a combination of reasons why the species is on the decline,
and you just have to figure it out because fishermen, the community and most of
all, the fish resource itself, are counting on you.
Managing fish is a difficult job
and often times a thankless job. However,
I am happy to relate that here in Rhode Island we are in good hands. The Rhode Island Department of Environmental
Management (DEM) led by Janet Coit, director, and her dedicated Marine
Fisheries Divisions team along with the help of marine scientist at the
University of Rhode Island (URI) do a good job of managing our fish resources
here in Rhode Island.
The complexity of fisheries
management and the professionalism of our fish managers were evident this past
Friday, January 27 at the RI Commercial Fluke Symposium held at the Crown Plaza
in Warwick, RI. The day-long symposium
tackled the issue of commercially harvested summer flounder (or fluke) and the
fisheries capacity to provide long-term, sustainable harvest opportunities. The
Symposium was sponsored by URI in collaboration with the RI DEM and the Rhode Island
commercial fishing community. So this means there were fishermen, fish
scientists and fish managers/regulators all in the same room, talking about a
very controversial topic… how to manage commercially harvested fluke or summer
flounder.
The objective of the Symposium was to examine the RI fluke fishery… share and discuss what is known based on
recent research and experiences of participants, share and discuss issues and
perspectives regarding fisheries outside RI that are subject to quota based
management programs, and identify and evaluate options for managing the RI
commercial fluke fishery in 2012 and beyond.
One quota based management experiment reported on at the Symposium was the
RI Fluke Sector Pilot program. The
report drew a comparison between the fishing effort and results of vessels fishing
in the experimental RI Fluke Sector Pilot with the effort and results of
non-sector vessels. What made the symposium timely is that the RI Fluke Sector Pilot
completed its third year a month ago and State fish regulators must decide on
whether or not to allow it to continue in some form.
With the Pilot program, annual catch limits were put into
place to prevent overfishing and to rebuild stocks rather than a limit on the
amount of time (often days) spent fishing.
The idea was to allow fishermen the option of controlling fishing
effort. Fishermen in the pilot sector
fished an allocated share of the total allowed catch where as non-sector
fishermen fished individually with a limit on the amount of fish and time spent
fishing. Fishing in groups with a total
allowable catch offers fishermen flexibility to fish when market prices are
highest or fish for species when they are available and other species are not.
Jason McNamee,
marine biologist for RI DEM, shared the performance of Pilot sector boats
compared to non-sector boats. The results were clear. The Pilot project was a success. Fish
discards (of undersized fish) from Pilot sector boats was about three to four
pounds verses thirty pounds for non-sector boats. Additionally, sector boats did not decrease
the results of fishing effort of non-sector boats, but actually increased it
allowing all vessels to get more for their catch because the market was not
flooded with too many fish of the same species at the same time. So the sector proved to be an effective way
to sustain the resource, enhance fisheries and reduce discards to record low levels.
Unwanted fish (due to size or species) are called discards. Many of them either die when they are dragged
through the water or are injured and will likely die when put back in the water.
The RI Pilot Fluke
Sector grew over its three year history; new members were added as fishermen
saw the benefits of flexibility. A
highlight at the symposium was a paper presented by Chris Anderson, a professor
of environmental and natural resource economics at the University of Rhode
Island when he published the paper in April, 2011. Chris is now at the University of Washington. Chris said, "...the (RI Pilot) sector shifted fluke landings to times when
they could maximize price. Comparing revenues… we find the sector program
increased fleet wide (twelve boats in the fleet at this time) revenues over
$800,000, including benefits of over $250,000 to non-sector vessels.” So the pilot sector enhanced revenue for its
twelve members, but also incurred enhanced revenue for non-sector vessels by
spreading available fish over an extended amount of time rather that flooding
the market all at one time which reduces their market value.
Both Dr. Anderson and Jason McNamee shared that the Fluke Pilot
program also had a positive impact on fishing for other species in that when
Pilot boats fished for fluke, non-sector boats were fishing for other species,
reportedly getting higher prices for these fish too because there were not as
many of these fish on the market at the same time.
Fishermen at the symposium that were in the RI Fluke Sector Pilot
related their desire to continue to be managed or regulated in this manner as
it proved to be a highly successful way for them to fish.
Fishermen in general, including
those inside and outside the Pilot sector at the Symposium, were concerned
about overarching issues that are challenges for the fishing industry as a
whole. One key issue discussed was providing
a way for new entrants into the business.
Jason Jarvis who has fished for over twenty-five year said, “I am worried
about my son. He wants to fish. If the industry continues on this path, he
will not be able to buy his way into the business.” Dick Grachek from Mystic who use to fish but
still owns a fishing vessel out of Point Judith said, “My boat and license use
to be worth $500,000, now it worth about $100,000… this is very sad.”
Al Conti, owner of Snug Harbor Marina, South Kingstown, RI summed up
the discussion of what new regulations should do nicely. Conti said, “We should abide by two guiding
principles as we develop management regulations. First we have to gain maximum
economic value from the fishery (making sure it remains sustainable). And second, we need quotas to be equitable
for all user groups.”
The input obtained at the Symposium will be used by Janet Coit, DEM
director and her department to develop proposals and regulations for the 2012
commercial fluke fishery. We should know
what direction regulation proposals are going in within the next six to eight
weeks.
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