Hank Soule manages the Portland Fish Exchange, and he knew that when Amendment 13 went into effect on May 1, 2004, the Exchange would take a hit. In developing the 2004 budget, he and the Exchange’s Board of Directors planned for a substantial drop in volume.

The exchange, with its display auction, has been so successful that Gloucester and New Bedford have modeled their auctions on it. In recent years, these three ports accounted for 50 percent of the fish landed in New England. Boston’s fish auction, the largest in New England, is not a display auction.

Since its founding in 1986, the Portland Fish Exchange has ridden the ups and downs of the groundfish industry. Volume steadily increased to a peak in 1992 of 30 million pounds. That was the record year for cod landings. Also in that year, Canada closed its cod fishery due to dwindling stocks.

After 1992 Portland’s volume declined slightly, then rebounded in the mid-1990s. The number of days at sea (DAS) per permit was lowered in 1996, and volume at the Portland Fish Exchange hit bottom in 1998 with 18 million pounds.

Volume in 2001 was 26 million pounds. When days at sea were cut by 20 percent in 2002, volume dropped to 22 million pounds the following year.

In planning for 2004 and the effects of Amendment 13 the Portland Fish Exchange had plenty of history, and it planned for its worst year since 1998.

So far everything has happened as expected. The volume of fish passing through the Portland Fish Exchange in May 2004 was 1.2 million pounds, down by one-third from the May 2003 figure of 1.8 million pounds.

The figures for June, while still preliminary, look worse. Landings are running between 1.3 and 1.4 million pounds as compared to 2 million pounds in June 2003.

Amendment 13 sharply cut New England groundfishermen’s number of days at sea down to an average of 53 days per permit. The average number of days at sea had been 70, and Maine boats as well as the rest of the New England fleet had been making, for the most part, a living. Each permit’s allotment of days at sea is different, based on the boat’s level of fishing activity from 1996 to 2001 and other factors.

Soule says that the Federal Government predicted that Amendment 13 would find every boat in the New England groundfishing fleet operating somewhere under break-even. Soule, from his experience running his own boats and the fish exchange, agrees with that assessment.

For that reason the Portland Fish Exchange decided that fishermen had enough bad news. It decided not to increase berthing rates or curtail the schedule. Soule says the exchange expects to lose $120,000 this year, but it can absorb the hit thanks to reserves.

The New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) developed Amendment 13 in response to lawsuits brought by the Conservation Law Foundation and other environmental groups. The purpose of the amendment is to end overfishing on all groundfish stocks and to rebuild stocks. The regulations are complicated, and many in the industry are frustrated.

Soule describes the next few years as crucial to Maine’s stake in the New England groundfishery fleet. Currently there are 1,400 Federal groundfishing permits in New England. Three hundred of the permits are issued to boats 70 feet or longer.

In recent years, 150 of those boats landed product at the Portland Fish Exchange.

At the Portland Fish Exchange 50 percent of the fish came from 25 boats, while 65 percent of the fish came from 20 percent of the boats. Volume is dependent on the large boats.

Now the trend is for Maine’s large boats to sell fish at Gloucester, MA. Anecdotally, Soule has heard that from September 2003 to May 2004, 2.5 to 3 million pounds that usually goes through the Portland Fish Exchange landed in Gloucester. That’s equivalent to 10 to 15 percent of the exchange’s volume.

The attrition rate of boats leaving Portland for Massachusetts doubled in 2003-4 over the previous year. “And this happened,” said Soule, “before Amendment 13 kicked on May 1.”

Landing a boat’s take in Massachusetts is attractive for several reasons, explains Soule. Foremost is that Massachusetts allows groundfishermen a bycatch of 500 lobsters per trip. This bycatch can add up to 25 percent additional value to a boat, and is worth $125,000 to $100,000 a year.

In addition, fishing grounds are closer to Massachusetts, and additional steaming time to Maine costs $5-15,000 per year. Most of Maine’s groundfish fleet is in small boats whose trip length is one or two days. It’s the larger Maine boats that go to Massachusetts.

Third, Massachusetts’ unemployment insurance is a little friendlier than Maine’s, says Soule.

Fourth, Maine charges tax on diesel fuel; Massachusetts does not.

Finally, Massachusetts has an attractive health program for fishermen that saves up to 40 percent over Maine health insurance options. It started several years ago when the Catholic Church in Massachusetts became concerned about insurance for fishermen. The church joined forces with Tufts University and the Massachusetts Fish Partnership to produce this popular insurance program.

Add it all up, says Soule, and Massachusetts looks good.

The City of Portland, however, has moved on several levels to maintain a fishing community here. Soule points out that two city councilors in particular, Jim Cloutier and Karen Geraghty, asked the Portland Fish Exchange how Portland could help. The city worked to develop a loan program, reduce berthing rates for fishing vessels and make Portland a more attractive package for fishermen.

Portland also was the first New England city or state to oppose Amendment 13 and its effect on the fishing community. The city was an intervener in the 2002 lawsuit brought by the Conservation Law Foundation.

Gov. John Baldacci’s task force on the state of Maine’s fishery is expected to make its report public in mid-summer.

Soule thinks it vital that all concerned look to their common interests: maintaining fishing stock and fishing communities. “The government is determined to get consolidation of the fishing industry one way or another. Many fishermen have reached the same conclusion, and gotten out,” Soule says.

“Fishing is changing – like our other natural resources – to limited access. People don’t like the idea of having to pay for natural resources. We can bemoan the situation,” he says, or “we can react, we can make this shift work.”