Amid rising costs and depleted fish stocks, fishermen are dropping out, quitting their traditional work because it no longer pays to fish. Even as fish stocks begin to recover, independent fishermen are swamped by strict regulations and the high cost of doing business.
Glen Libby, president of the Midcoast Fishermen’s Cooperative (MFC) in Port Clyde, is selling one of three federal fishing permits to get out of debt caused by high fuel prices for his three boats. But he isn’t just selling the permit-for a price somewhat under $250,000-he is doing something that might start to alleviate the current crisis.
Libby’s license will become part of a new “permit bank” managed by the Island Institute and The Nature Conservancy, to be made available to local fishermen for research into how to make catching groundfish more sustainable.
Penobscot East Resource Center (PERC) in Stonington also partnered with The Nature Conservancy to buy a groundfish permit that will be leased for small-scale, sustainable fishing.
“I’m glad we have this opportunity, because it does preserve access,” said Libby. He can remember when groundfish were plentiful along the coast. “They don’t migrate inshore any more,” he said, citing a steady decline of all stocks in recent years. In many harbors, lobstering is the main commercial activity, and whether that will remain strong is uncertain, fishermen and scientists say.
Libby will no longer go after groundfish with his 54-foot vessel, Skipper,
but can still use the boat for catching shrimp in season.
“Maine’s island and remote coastal economies are heavily dependent on the lobster fishery,” said Rob Snyder, the Island Institute’s vice president of programs. “Permit banking is critical to these communities because it will allow fishermen to experiment with conservation-oriented gear that will help bring diversified fishing opportunities back to our coast.”
A Thomaston fisherman, Travis Thorbjornson, will be the first to use the permit bank to test fishing gear through a contract with the Gulf of Maine Research Institute. Among those endorsing the program is Speaker of the House Hannah Pingree of North Haven, and State Sen. Dennis Damon of Trenton.
The state Department of Marine Resources is also involved in creating a permit bank for the entire coast with the goal of preserving groundfishing as a way of life. The number of Maine boats fishing for cod, hake, flounder, haddock and Pollock has sunk from several hundred 20 years ago to less than 100 today, records show.
Aaron Dority, who heads the Downeast Groundfish Initiative at Penobscot East Resource Center in Stonington, said that group has also partnered with The Nature Conservancy to set up a second permit bank serving fishermen.
The eastern Maine permit bank has purchased its first groundfish permit from Franklin fisherman Victor Levesque, who has agreed to support the permit banking effort. That permit also sold for somewhat under $250,000.
Currently, Dority said, nobody is fishing for groundfish from ports east of Penobscot Bay, though a few permits remain in this region. As fish stocks make an expected recovery in eastern Maine, there might not be anyone left with a permit to catch them unless permits are retained and used.
Dority said the permit bank could start to reverse that trend. The new permit bank will lease fishing rights from the bank to the fishermen using only hook fishing gear. “We are working with fishermen to use intentionally inefficient gear so that fish return to the near shore waters. Over time, this fishery could be like the halibut fishery in eastern Maine-a small-scale, part-time opportunity for a lot of fishermen Downeast,” he said.
He acknowledged that buying a couple of fishing permits is only a start. “It’s a drop in the bucket. But it’s a turning point, a very significant change in direction,” he said.
Levesque, who is 80, said fishing 30 years ago was strong. Selling his permit was “kind of a way out,” he said, adding, “I’m said because I can’t go fishing again and neither can my son or my grandson.” Levesque had been fishing with his 56-foot dragger, Thunder Bay.
“The ultimate goal is sustainable, community-based fishing,” said Veronica Young, associate director at the resource center in Stonington.
“The fish will come back but we need to be able to fish them,” she added. She emphasized that the program focuses on Downeast fishermen and their communities, not on fishing conglomerates that have snapped up permits and further limited local access to groundfish. “It [the permit bank] is community based. It’s about the hairdresser, the hardware store, the bank, the school and a vibrant local economy,” she said.
“There is great cooperation between and among fishermen. It’s really collaborative,” Young said.
Fisherman Glen Libby may be an example of that, straddling the industry and the government that regulates it. This summer he was named to the New England Fishery Management Council, an advisory panel on federal fishing rules.
Steve Cartwright is a freelance writer who lives in Waldoboro.