Fishermen are furious over the limited scallop quotas. In “United We Fish” raly the fishermen protest to reform the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, under which fisheries are managed, and to request a moratorium on the catch shares program.
The fishermen are certain that the coming quotas will slam Cape Cod scallopers. It is said that nobody will have enough to be viable. Local fisherman said that on March 1, general category boats will be fishing under catch shares for the first time – individual tradable quotas – meaning we can have 1,600 pounds. That’s equal to four days of fishing (under the old system).
According to the local fishers in 2006, when Amendment 11 passed, there were over 2,900 general category permits; 600 were working permits that actually landed scallops that year. Now it’s estimated there’ll be 369 left. That was their estimate,” she emphasized. Tom Dempsey of Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen’s Association explained that years back there were hundreds of boats on Cape Cod that maintained the right to go small boat (general) category opportunistic fishing.
Implementation of the quotas program was delayed until this March to give fishermen time to get their paperwork in order and appeal their allotments. It is told that a lot of fishermen have made a substantial investment in permits and quota to put together a full-time position. In November, the New England Fishery Management Council voted to adopt a rule chopping the trip boats days at sea from 37 to 29 and limiting the total catch to 41.7 million pounds.
