Political Inaction

Lu Dochtermann, a 72 year old still in his wheelhouse for multiple annual fisheries, continues to obtain a simple and swift solution to the problem plaguing the North Pacific Halibut longline fleet. When the International Pacific Halibut Commission’s surveys resulted in a severe cutback over many years now, in the total commercial allowable catch, the calculus of profits aboard many vessels changed to the point of dire circumstances. Part of the problem is the high lease rates taken right off the top, but fuel costs are prohibitive, especially when combined with needless travel and at-sea time required by senseless regulations that failed to anticipate a 73% drop in ALC and individual quotas.

For weeks, Dochtermann has been asking for some immediate action, and today, again takes up the cause with Senator Lisa Murkowski and her fishery aide, Jay Sterne in Washington DC with the following email. It is pretty remarkable that given all those who understand the problem that a temporary exemption can’t take place immediately; at the least an understanding that NMFS OLE will not pursue cases on this particular matter for the interim. Lu does a service to fishermen nationwide by explaining what the catch share and immense regulatory burden brings.

NB: We have already communicated at length over the past few weeks with Sen. Begich and Bob King. We need ACTION!

Senator Lisa Murkowski (AK)

709 Hart Senate Building

Washington, D.C. 20510

Main: 202-224-6665

Fax: 202-224-5301

[email protected]

RE: HALIBUT FISHING CAP RESTRICTING PROFITABLE OPERATIONS THIS SEASON

Dear Lisa and Jay:

We need your immediate assistance in securing a temporary exemption to current regulations prohibiting adequate halibut quota to be fished aboard a single vessel due to the far-reaching cuts in overall commercial halibut fisheries. Can we please get a rule suspension (NPFMC) and temporary injunction against having NMFS enforcing the existing rule of maximum permitted per vessel and thereby avoid a NOVA, so that we can operate with reasonable business sense and make a profit?

You are likely aware that the drastic cutbacks in the IPHC determined North Pacific halibut fisheries has meant that permit/quotaholders are now facing serious alterations to our business expenses and plans. When the North Pacific Fishery Management Council tailored the maximum level of quota allowed on board for a vessel in the various zones of fishing, it failed to encompass a dismissal or exclusion clause, or redemptive qualification – call it what you may – for cases of drastic overall stock guideline harvest levels for commercial fishermen.

If the 73% cutback in overall Allowable Catch Limits is not a case for recognizing the serious impacts on business expenses – given the huge quota leases coming off the top & the exorbitant cost of diesel fuel, the major expense – then please tell us what is?! With quotas stated in percentages then taken by the ACL/GHL it determines the pounds allowed.

I have quota that could be split onto two vessels I own, and the ability to bring some leased quota in from parties who have no vessels of their own, but the regulations will not allow me to fish all of that on the grounds without returning to Kodiak, then outfitting my second boat for a second fishing trip. In practice, this means trying to save fuel costs by lumbering back to Kodiak on only one engine, slowly, and then re-outfitting aboard my second vessel. This doubles crew time and costs, complicates bait and fuel purchases, and other negative, necessary costs imposed on my business.

It then means the second boat has to retrace the same path, hundreds of miles West of Kodiak to pass through the Peninsula and head north to the Pribilofs and adjacent grounds (area 4D etc.). This is wasteful and costly, and more.

This year, we will still be able to fish area 4, but well placed rumblings are indicating that in 2015, that area will be closed to halibut fishing altogether. It is imperative that those of us who can fish the quotas of parties who do not own vessels be able to help provide a return on their books as well. In my case, I am training the young recipients of inherited quota aboard my vessel – fighting back the greying of the fleet; as well as eager to fish their distant (not in Alaska) mother’s quota for her benefit.

Last point: please do something about the exorbitant fuel prices, the largest cost which vessel owners and captains and crews must bear in these fisheries. Alaska provides one-fifth of the nation’s oil but Alaskans, especially fishermen, pay about a dollar more per gallon than elsewhere. Why!?

I am heading to the fishing grounds this afternoon, after costly vessel repairs, and need to receive a response ASAP so that I can arrange via on board communications for adaptive business actions to keep our crew and others in the black – i.e. remain taxpayers. Please be aware that I am contemplating a lawsuit if we do not receive some measure of relief now. Thank you.

Respectfully,

Ludger W. Dochtermann

F/V NORTH POINT & F/V STORMBIRD, Owner and Operator

P.O. Box 714; Kodiak, AK 99615

Comment Here

Ocean Resource Privatization

Articles Posted by Date
April 2024

M T W T F S S

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

8 9 10 11 12 13 14

15 16 17 18 19 20 21

22 23 24 25 26 27 28

29 30

« Mar

April 2024
M	T	W	T	F	S	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30

The New England groundfish debacle (Part III): who or what is at fault? Nils E. Stolpe/FishNet

It took me a while to decide how to most accurately describe the situation that has been visited upon the New England fishing communities that are and since colonial times have been dependent on the groundfish fisheries.

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

Recent Posts
- Houma man cited on shrimping violations
  
  A Houma man was cited last week for alleged shrimping violations on Nov. 9 in Pointe-Aux-Chenes. The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries cited Dwayne T. Read More »
- The Shipwrecked Sailors & the Wandering Cod
  
  In the remote archipelago of Lofoten, Arctic cod have been dried on oceanfront racks since the age of the Vikings. This is the unlikely story of Read More »
- Four old boats (and the $100K to remove them) stand in way of industrial park
  
  Four discarded fishing boats the size of school buses are holding up what could become a marine industrial park on Far Creek. Extracting them would cost Read More »
- Cautionary fish tale from Australia’s Great Barrier Reef marine reserve
  
  All told, vessels have been catching 39% less seafood—roughly 4500 metric tons—in the Great Barrier Reef than before the closure, Fletcher and colleagues report in a Read More »
- A Petersburg veterinarian floats his clinic to Southeast communities
  
  For most pet owners, visits to the vet are nothing special — maybe even something they take for granted. But what if you don’t have access Read More »
- North Sea Annihilation: Offshore Wind Power Destroying Marine Environment In New & Exciting Ways
  
  Energy generation systems of all descriptions take their toll, but only one of them claims moral superiority over all others. That increasingly tenuous claim rests on Read More »
- Coast Guard medevacs 1 from fishing vessel near Hatteras Island, NC
  
  The Coast Guard medevaced a man who had suffered possible injuries aboard a fishing vessel near Hatteras Island Sunday morning. Watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector North Read More »
- Scottish seafood left to rot with exports tangled in Brexit bureaucracy, exports could grind to a halt
  
  The Scottish Seafood Association said exports to the EU are being hindered by “red tape” delays in Scotland and France. It claims as many as 25 Read More »
- New fish fight for New England
  
  The New England Fishery Management Council is looking at a plan to take 55 square miles of Stellwagen Bank, a section due east of Scituate and Read More »
- Weather Delay: Spring lobster seasons in parts of three Maritimes provinces to open on Tuesday.
  
  The decision came after the Lobster Advisory Committee met with DFO Sunday morning. The seasons for LFA 23 in northeastern New Brunswick, LFA 24 in northern Read More »
- Big Green – The Handmaiden Of Big Oil
  
  It is part of the green fairy tale that skepticism only exists because the oil companies are funding it. So I did some digging and the Read More »
- Maine Native Americans want deal with state on commercial fishing
  
  Maine’s American Indian tribes want state officials to come to the table for a potentially wide-reaching agreement about the way the tribes harvest commercial fish. Passamaquoddy Read More »
- Researchers to Conduct Harbor Seal Catch-and-Release in Alsea Bay April 7
  
  Researchers at Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute, Moss Landing Marine Labs, Alaska SeaLife Center and San Jose State will conduct captures of harbor seals within Read More »
- “It was really fun, I was excited.” 7-year-old Trent Collins skipped school to continue the lobster fishing family tradition!
  
  Trent Collins may only be seven years old, but he knew he was ready to be part of his grandfather’s lobster fishing crew this week when Read More »
- The EDF Fish Tale of Bubba and Miguel
  
  An article written by some former WWF stooge that never caught a fish for a living about a guy named Bubba that didn’t like being a fisherman. Read More »
- Jensen Maritime Awarded for Vision and Innovation in Design of the Northern Leader Fishing Vessel
  
  Jensen Maritime, Crowley Maritime Corp’s Seattle-based naval architecture and marine engineering firm, has been honored with the New Wave Award, which recognizes the company’s vision and innovation Read More »
- IPHC staff reflect on 2015 season, decisions, with Joe Viechnicki
  
  A little over a month from now, the International Pacific Halibut Commission will meet to start considering catch limits for next season. IPHC executive director Bruce Read More »
- Maine DMR to hold two lotteries for scallop licenses
  
  The Department of Marine Resources announced last Friday that it was opening two lotteries for scallop fishing licenses for the upcoming 2019-20 fishing season. One of Read More »
- Why the U.S. Needs More Worker-Owned Companies
  
  The gap in wealth in the United States between the ultrawealthy and everyone else has reached its widest point in decades. One way to narrow the Read More »
- Four Fort Bragg drag net fishermen, along with the Environmental Defense Fund, hope to create a “fair trade” fish!
  
  Four Fort Bragg drag net fishermen, along with the Environmental Defense Fund, hope to create a “fair trade” fish, which would inform consumers about where, when, Read More »
- High Prices, Low Production; Gulf Oysters at Zero Population
  
  From Texas to Florida, the number of oysters harvested in the Gulf is at one of the lowest on record. Three years after the Deepwater Horizon Read More »
- Herring festival hangs in balance – Lack of set price keeps fishermen out of water
  
  As locals prepare to celebrate the humble herring, a dispute over prices of the omega-3 rich silvery fish has organizers of the Sausalito Herring Festival wondering Read More »
- Huge relief for owners as grounded fishing trawler is rescued
  
  In scenes reminiscent of the mighty Cherry Venture, the fishing trawler F/V Proteus, out of Mooloolaba, ran aground this week just past middle rock at the Read More »
- Are fishing conservation efforts helping or hurting?
  
  If you put too many restrictions on the fishing industry, it could kill off a major part of the local economy. But if too few restrictions Read More »
- NOAA Looted SK Money: Research projects in New England and the Mid-Atlantic are expected to receive nearly $5.6 million
  
  “Today’s announcement is great news for fishing communities in the Greater Atlantic Region,” said John Bullard, administrator, NOAA Fisheries NMFS Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office. “Many Read More »