Fishermen must adapt to survive

The business of operating a commercial fishing boat has never been more challenging. Operators who must constantly adapt to economic and regulatory changes are increasingly asking themselves the big question: Is fishing worth it anymore?
The common notions about long hours, gales and sleep deprivation are still part of the industry – once the boat leaves the dock. But the fleet in Point Judith, Rhode Island’s largest port, seems perpetually tied to the dock, rusting and getting old. The reasons why cause headaches to all who are connected to the fleet: fisheries managers, fish sellers, fuel companies, fish cutters, boat owners, captains and crews.
Even with strong winter profits from squid fishing, the future of the fleet is uncertain. Many boats are for sale, and the recruitment of young talent – the next generation, so critical to any business – is dismally low.
Fred Mattera, owner of the offshore trawler, Travis and Natalie, begins with a positive: “The squid are starting to show where they should be [for this time of year]. Boats are making money. The fall run was slow getting started, and we had to steam 30 hours to get where the squid were. Fuel isn’t cheap. So that run cost more than it was worth at times.”
Fishermen now pay about $3 a gallon for diesel fuel, their largest operating expense; many boats burn 600 gallons a day for a four-day trip. “Trip expenses – fuel, oil, lumpers [people to unload the catch], ice – for decades used to be 15 to 17 percent of the gross stock. Now they’re close to 30 percent,” says Mattera.
The gross stock is the total value of the fish in the hold, but unlike the rising cost of fuel and other resources, “the price of fish isn’t coming up,” explains Mattera. “The cost of vessel insurance, health insurance, our yearly maintenance costs, and food bills are also going up and up.”
Every marketable fish swimming in New England is managed by the National Marine Fisheries Service. Some species – squid, summer flounder or scup, for example – are regulated via a quota system. Once the quota is met, the fishery is closed. Other species – cod, haddock, yellowtail flounder, known as groundfish – are managed under a “days-at-sea” program, in which each boat is allotted a certain number of days to fish on a particular species. A decade ago, many boats had more than 150 days to fish. Today, most boats are given only about 40 days a year to fish for groundfish, and that number could drop further in 2008.
Squid is to Rhode Island what lobster is to Maine or blue crabs are to the Chesapeake Bay, although the importance of the species goes unnoticed by nearly everyone.
Yet this is how a large percentage of Rhode Island trawlers stay profitable. The question is – is the squid quota (about 36 million pounds) enough to keep the current number of boats economically viable?
Many fishermen favor some form of a vessel-buyout program. Most agree that fewer boats will be the only answer to the conundrum. “What is happening now is you have too much effort going after too-small a quota,” says Mattera. “No one is benefiting from micro-management by ‘input’ measures like days at sea, rolling closures, trip limits. There needs to be a consolidation of the fleet.”
Dave Preble of the New England Fisheries Management Council agrees. “Consolidation of the fleet is imminent. It’s not a maybe. Allocation of the resource should happen early on in the consolidation. Then the vessel owner can make a decision by selling his quota share, or by buying someone else’s.” The permits vessels have for squid, flounder and cod will increase in value as the fleet thins.
The long-term consequences of a leaner fleet are not yet clear, but from an economic perspective, consolidation would seem the fastest solution to Point Judith’s (and New England’s) problems. Reduce the number of boats and those that remain will prosper. It is also a fisheries manager’s dream – it’s simply much easier to manage a smaller fleet.
Opponents of consolidation think the approach benefits those with deep pockets, those who can afford to buy more shares of the allocation. “Allocation,” according to Preble, “is assigning property rights – and what level of property rights are assigned is a government decision.”
Fishermen have been viewed as the last of the cowboys. They are independent, free to roam the seas.
But those days are done. This coming year, the fishing fleet will see bigger changes, unprecedented changes. Those changes will force fisherman into smaller and smaller sets of choices.
“Too many fishermen fear changes. But what we need is change,” says Mattera. “Nothing is static. The way it is going now, no one wins, and very few profit. The alternative to consolidation is more micro-management, more reductions. That is a dead end.” •