Hard Times for Commercial Fishermen

The assertions in this story, out of Rhode Island, about how hard it is to make a living as a small-scale commercial fishermen are amazing:

During the last six months, Harvey's 95- foot boat, the Ing Toffer II, consumed $130,000 in fuel, and $40,000 worth of ice. Five years ago, Harvey claims that fuel costs for the entire year were around $100,000. And ice cost half of what it costs now. "In five years, the cost of doing business has doubled," Harvey said. ...

Livernois put his boat up for sale last week. When he listed his boat with a broker in Point Judith, four other fishing vessels from the same marina had been listed for sale during the same week.

Harvey and Livernois both claim that the terrorist attack in New York on 9/11 started the decimation of the New England fishing industry. Livernois said his insurance went from $28,000 a year to $50,000 almost overnight.

Harvey said he was recently paid $3,500 for a 20,000- pound catch of whiting- barely 17-cents a pound. The cost of fuel for the trip was more than $3,000, and the ice was $1,600. "I lost money. The crew didn't get paid," Harvey said. ...

He cited a sticker that he must have on his boat that says, "I am a fishing vessel," as an example of one of the "ridiculous" charges imposed on fishermen. "I have a 95- foot boat with a huge net rolled up on the stern, and a crew working on the decks, and they make me pay $35 for a decal to identify me as a fishing vessel....

Harvey also said that National Marine Fishery regulations have cut back the number of days a year he can fish. Five years ago, he could go out for 88 days. Now, he is only allowed 48 days. "Next year they'll cut us back another 20 percent," Harvey said. ...

According to government regulations, he is allowed to catch 10,000 pounds of fish in ten days. However, he must stay out for ten days before he can bring the catch in to market. If he catches the limit in two days, he is not permitted to come home to sell it and save on expenses.

I would be more confident in the veracity of the assertions if the reporter had talked to someone from the National Marine Fisheries Service, for example (and not referred to it as "National Marine Fishery"); and I would be more confident if the reporter hadn't also asserted in a subsequent paragraph that:

... Harvey said environmental organizations are constantly lobbying for more regulations to restrict fishing. He went on to say that organizations like the Conservation Law Foundation and Audubon Society regularly sue the National Marine Fisheries for allegedly not protecting our natural resources...

without trying to determine if it's true.

Nevertheless it's sobering.

Men's Lives: A Look at Traditional Fishermen on Long Island's East End

This is an old story but compelling nonetheless: traditional fishermen say they can’t make a living because of government restrictions, while government officials say that if they don’t restrict the amount of fish that are caught, there will be no fish left. Not only that but rich people want to monopolize the shoreline and the coves to amuse themselves.

This time it’s the eastern Long Island fishermen that Peter Matthiessen wrote about in Men’s Lives. A newTimes story out this afternoon on its website (here) talks about a pound net fisherman named Brad Loewen, but also manages to work in some terrific East End color and lore:

Many Bonackers say they have an inherited right to fish these waters, since their families were doing so well before the formation of the state or federal governments. Stuart Vorpahl Jr., for example, said he never got a fishing license because the government has no right to issue them, citing early colonial era edicts kept in the town library that give stewardship of the waterways to the East Hampton board of trustees.

Mr. Vorpahl was repeatedly fined and arrested in the 1990s for fishing without a license. Each time he was stopped, he pulled out a laminated copy of the Dongan patent, the 17th-century edict signed by the King of England’s governor-in-chief of New York. Then he took the town to court, and prosecutors dropped several rounds of charges. But after a 1998 arrest was upheld, Mr. Vorpahl — who says he can talk to crows and ends conversations with the Bonac expression “Yes, yes, bub,” — retired.

Commercial fishermen are an irresistible subject, and traditional fishermen even more so. In ’88 or ’89 I spent a morning with Dan Dzenkowski, one of Brad Loewen’s pound netting colleagues from the north fork, Greenport in particular. I cut it from my book at the last minute but liked it enough to put it on my other blog, here.

Scraping Bottom for Shellfish Off Greenwich and Stamford

Is there a shellfishing revival in Long Island Sound, or are fishermen simply looking for every chance to scrape together a living? A couple of weeks ago, a woman from Darien told me that Norwalk boats were dredging up mussels near her house. Now a fellow who owns a fish market in Cos Cob wants to lease 183 acres of land under the Sound, off Greenwich and Stamford, for harvesting oysters and clams.

The feeling among the state officials who issue the leases is that most of the good shellfishing spots are well-known and already taken, which they say explains why they get only about 10 applications for new leases a year. The Cos Cob fisherman, Jardar Nygaard, says he knows that it's a risk, but it's worth it.

"I just think that cultivation of shellfish is a good business to be in," Nygaard said. "For one thing, it's sustainable, and basically eco-friendly."

Here's an interesting Greenwich Time story about his plans.