ON THE WATERFRONT FUTURE OF A FLEET


Turtle Hospital’s Richie Moretti and Tim Daniels/Florida Keys Commercial Fishermen release rehabilitated loggerhead turtle.


n A N I N T E R V I E W W I T H Bill Kelly


Guy deBoer | GDTe major discussions we have had with you these past couple of months pertain to government regulations that commercial fishermen feel would have been detrimental to the suc- cess of maintaining a commercial fishing fleet. Te biggest attack for that is a term called “Catch Shares,” which the South Atlantic Council rejected. Why did you decide not to go forward in that direction?


Bill Kelly | BKTis is an un- precedented action on their part. Under the current administration, they have been pushing a program called Catch Shares, which has been


Guy deBoer


KONK BROADCASTING NEWS DIRECTOR


espoused primarily by major envi- ronmental groups such as the Envi- ronmental Defense Fund. Catch shares are more of a business plan then they are a fisheries manage- ment plan, and the key components


are fleet reduction and job loss. We don’t need that as we emerge from one of the worst recessions we have ever faced, nor can we afford job loss in small coastal communities of which the Keys are so very indica- tive. In rejecting catch shares here on the Stafford Grouper Fishery, the council basically said that they’ve been at this for three years, listened to the fishermen, gone to scoping meetings from North Car- olina down to Key West, and an overwhelming number of fishermen have rejected the concept of catch shares. Tey have also seen it pose problems in the New England area, where our number one fishing sea- ports in the cities of New Bedford and Gloucester, Massachusetts, are actually suing the government to get catch shares thrown out of their


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fisheries. Tis sends a very clear sig- nal that catch shares do not work in all geographical areas and do not work in all fisheries. Te South At- lantic Council is the first to send that message back to Washington.


GD How do catch shares actually go about and reduce the fleet? BKTe federal government takes a history of catch records and they al- locate to fishermen how many pounds of fish they are allowed to catch. Te commercial sector, of course, involves money. Te fish houses and bigger operations buy out certain portions of catch shares. As they amass these shares, they turn them back and lease them in bulk to fishermen. It’s kind of like a sharecropper effect.


Continued


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