THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, April 17, 1995 TAG: 9504150225
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: BY VAN STRICKLER
LENGTH: Long : 109 lines
Tidewater's offshore commercial fishing fleet is profitable. But it's in trouble because of government regulation.
From Seaford around the Peninsula to Newport News are 80 boats of the 75- to 110-foot class. Of these, 85 percent are scallop boats that fish 50 to 80 miles offshore from the Virginia capes to Long Island and as a rule return their catch to local docks.
The average annual gross from Virginia scallop vessels alone is over $30 million. Because of large stocks of scallops off Virginia waters in recent years, many vessels from New Jersey and Massachusetts have also landed their catch in Virginia.
Add to that the gross receipts from flounder, bass, and other finfish and we're looking at an industry with well over $50 million in annual revenue. Using average estimates, the annual operating cost of these vessels is over $8.5 million for fuel, supplies, groceries and ice. The maintenance on these vessels keeps boat yards, welders and mechanics in steady employ. Other large expenses include insurance and debt service for the mortgage on these vessels.
What remains is the income the owners and crew take home to feed their families and pay rent or mortgage. My point is most of that $50 million plus is turned back into the economy of Tidewater. Now for the bad news.
Commercial fishermen are on the verge of being regulated to death. Congress, in all its wisdom, passed the Magnuson Act in 1976, which established the 200-mile Economic Exclusion Zone and a council system for fisheries management.
Many of the management plans passed by the councils have been unnecessary, such as rebuilding groundfish stocks in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank. Other plans have been not only unnecessary but counterproductive. As with many other factions of the government, the fisheries management councils believe that if any area comes under their domain it must be regulated.
This brings us to Amendment No. 4 to the Atlantic sea scallop fisheries management plan, which came into effect March 1. The plan not only established which vessels could participate in the scallop fishery but had many limitations for those that could.
The strongest limits were placed on days at sea and crew size. In recent years scallop boats carried crews of 11 to 15 and fished as many days as their vessel and weather allowed.
Amendment No. 4 began with nine men and went immediately to seven being allowed 204 days to fish in the first year. The plan calls for a 10 percent annual reduction in days at sea over seven years with two rest years, which would bring a full-time scallop vessel to 120 days at sea in the year 2000.
Let me pause for a moment and ask the question: Why?
The stock answer is for the conservation of the species. I must ask: For whom?
This plan is not about conservation but the greed of a few trawler fleet owners. Public hearings on the latest changes in Amendment No. 4 focused on the topic of consolidation of vessel days at sea. This will allow owners of more than one vessel to compile the days from one or more boats to the remaining ones and thereby keep them fishing throughout the year.
Meanwhile, the single vessel owners will wither and drop out of the fishery. There is already a clause that prohibits any vessel from re-entering the fishery once out. There is now some discussion of limiting the annual production of most vessels.
The intent is clear to anyone in the industry. The plan to diminish days at sea will take most of the seven years to eliminate two-thirds of the vessels. After the fleet has been trimmed to tolerable levels most of the regulations will expire.
As for conservation, scallop landings have increased year after year until 1992 and 1993 when there was a slight decline.
The 1994 landings were up and 1995 appears to be a good year, so far. The scientists at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science will attest that scallops have shown a seven to 10 year cycle of rise and fall.
There have historically been seven good years and two to three off years. The old salts have talked about fishing in the early '60s when you could drag from Chesapeake Light to Cape May and not see a scallop. But in '67 you could deck load the boat with one tow.
That was when the Virginia fleet consisted of a dozen boats that had never heard of chromoscopes, color chart video plotters and satellite global positioning systems. I've seen five-day northeasters kill the ocean bottom from the Virginia capes to Montauk, Long Island, and for three months we weren't able to catch enough to eat. Six months later, we had record trips. Mother Nature took care of it then and she can take care of it now.
Tidewater residents need to wake up and realize they have a thriving industry that is about to go down the tubes.
We are in the midst of government cutbacks that have closed many of the shipyards in our area and have precipitated tremendous layoff of personnel.
Oceana has recently dodged a big bullet, but how many of our smaller bases will remain open the next 10 years?
In our harbor, we've witnessed Allied and NBC leave for busier ports while many of the smaller towing companies have been bought out or gone under.
We boast of having the world's greatest natural harbor, and yet it is fast becoming a very tough place to make a living or even find a job. The people of Hampton Roads should be proud of their commercial fleet and the men who work them.
The fishermen are like the farmers in that they not only produce income, they produce goods to go to market. This is especially meritorious in a day when lawyers and congressmen are producing laws faster than the printers can print. MEMO: Van Strickler, captain of the scallop trawler Miss Maude, lives in
Virginia Beach.
ILLUSTRATION: File photo
Federal restrictions on scallop catches benefit only the big fishing
fleets, a trawler skipper says.
by CNB