Under new federal regulations over a half of sector fishing based on allocated catch shares. After about 12 percent of the fishing year, only two stocks — cod from the eastern side of Georges Bank, and Georges Bank yellowtail — have given up close to 12 percent of the year’s allocation, according to data released Friday by the National Marine Fisheries Service.
NMFS report states high interest because of the new economic and regulatory system, which gives sector members a proportion of a total allowable catch for each stock. The individual fishermen’s and sectors’ catch shares can also be bought, sold or traded, essentially converting the fishery into a commodities market. Experts believe that new system would discourage the fishermen’s effort to fish
Larry Ciulla, president of the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction, said he was not surprised by the report but attributed the slow start to the year to the constrained allocations connected to the catch share rights. He guessed that about 50 percent of the inshore groundfishing boats have been idle over the first six weeks of the new regulatory system. In some cases, fishermen may be waiting for better prices, he said, but many are also concerned about fishing through the small allocations in just the first weeks of the fishing year.
