AUGUSTA – A state-run permitting program that helps Maine’s long-ailing groundfishing industry should be open to boats of all sizes, supporters of a bill to expand a so-called permit bank said Wednesday. continued
NILS STOLPE: The New England groundfish debacle (Part IV): Is cutting back harvest really the answer?
While it’s a fact that’s hardly ever acknowledged, the assumption in fisheries management is that if the population of a stock of fish isn’t at some arbitrary level, it’s because of too much fishing. Hence the term “overfished.” Hence the mandated knee jerk reaction of the fisheries managers to not enough fish; cut back on fishing. What of other factors? They don’t count. It’s all about fishing, because fishing is all that the managers can control; it’s their Maslow’s Hammer. When it comes to the oceans it seems as if it’s about all that the industry connected mega-foundations that support the anti-fishing ENGOs with hundreds of millions of dollars a year in “donations” are interested in controlling. Read the article here
I was wondering what O’Hara was going to do with their new 194ft. freezer/trawler while most fishermen are going out of business “…due to depleted stocks from years of overfishing”. By 2015 the when O’Hara commissions the new vessel, looks like most of the small boat indpendent “artisanal” fishing operations will be out of the way. The “fleet reduction” plan is working beautifully.
How were the permit banks sold a few years ago? Wasn’t it to preserve the fishery for local small boat fishermen? CLF Ventures on their website explains their permit bank theory of “community ownership” (of ITQ’s aka catch shares) as they “greased the skids” for market-capitalized factory/trawler operations through the Cape Cod Fisheries Trust prototype:
“Distinct from community-based management of fishery quotas, community ownership of quotas – held in a permit bank, fishery trust or similar vehicle – is fundamental to the success of a catch-share fishery. Communities are uniquely positioned, politically and practically, to own and distribute fisheries quota as a profitable and sustainable business operation. Communities also are best positioned to reinvest in fisheries management infrastructures, but for the local fishing businesses in those communities to thrive, they must be able to access financing to become long-term owners in the fishery.”
http://www.clfventures.org/success-stories/cape-cod-fisheries-trust/
The investor capitalized consolidation nightmare of The New England Fishery is well underway!
I was a bit surprised and concerned also Dick, so I looked at the Ohara website.
They are big players in Alaska, and I’m thinking that’s the destination.
I hope!
http://www.oharacorporation.com/
Probably true, Alaska has been “rationalized” for years now. They’re used to factory trawlers—and foreign ownership of their fisheries and processing quotas.
NOAA not long ago tried an amendment to Mag-Stevens which would eliminate the vessel permit spec’s and take off the existing limits on vessel capacity, size, and power.
NOAA/EDF/CLF/Pew will keep trying until they have privatized and commoditized every U.S. fishery for the corporate “moneyed monsters”.
They have been working on this plan for many many years, and knew they needed to work from the inside. Why I call them “the fabian socialists”! Keep up the great research Dick and BH!