Council Declares Amendment 18 Flawed
Then Votes It In

by Laurie Schreiber

Thirty members of a fishermen’s advocacy group “Who Fishes Matters” attended the New England Fisheries Management Council meeting on 9/30/15 in Plymouth, MA. During the public comment period many expressed concern that Amendment 18, re-written as it had been, would do nothing to check consolidation of ground fishing rights in New England. The group, in protest, walked out of the meeting en masse. Left to right, fisherman Ed Barrett, Marshfield; Jarvis Green, seafood dealer, three students from New England colleges; and Brett Tolley, community organizer with NAMA. Fishermen’s Voice photo

PLYMOUTH, Mass.—“The core message, across the board, is—we don’t want this fishery owned and controlled by a small group of people.”

That was the consensus, as expressed by Brett Tolley, of the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance, delivered to the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) during their latest deliberations on Amendment 18 to the groundfish management plan.

Tolley continued, “That’s no good for communities or the fish or the seafood system. And right now, at the end of this process, we’re debating whether seven or five entities should control this fishery….So there’s something fundamentally flawed with this public process.”

In late September, NEFMC was considering measures that would impose limits on the amount of fishery permits and/or Potential Sector Contribution (PSC) that individuals or groups may hold, as well as other measures that might promote fleet diversity or enhance sector management.

But fishermen and others at the meeting said Amendment 18 failed to achieve the goals outlined by NEFMC.

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