Pacific Fishery Management Meeting Summary

September 8th–13th 2002

 

To:  The 8,377 petitioners who supported the Newport Dory Fleet at the Sept. PFMC meeting:

 

We arrived on Sunday Sept. 8th to join the Groundfish Advisory Panel (GAP) meeting and the Groundfish Management Team (GMT) meeting.  These advisory panels give recommendations to the council.  The GAP consists of representatives from different fisheries along the west coast and the GMT are the number crunchers allocating who is going to get what kind and how much fish for the year.  These two meetings went on for more than 5 days normally they last 2-3 days at the most.  The GAP did not have the results of the GMT’s final numbers and couldn’t get much done without them.  The GMT finalized their numbers on Tues. and presented them to the council; the council rejected them for some unknown reason.  It was back to the drawing board for the GMT.  This occurred 3 times before the council approved their work.  Finally by Weds the Gap had something to work with and waited for direction from the council, which was slow in coming.  In the meantime, the council meeting was in progress and they were skipping all around on the agenda. This made it impossible to follow any of their reasoning or rationale on the agenda items.  To make a long story short, the meeting was total chaos and even the council members asked frequently where they were at, and on what subject.

 

The councils Executive Director, Dr Donald McIsaac, was insensitive to the public during public comment periods.  He limited everyone to 3 minutes max. with a timing light on the speaker.  This is not normal procedure and caused everyone to make several public comments at different times during the meeting.  Normal council public comment procedure allows 5 minutes per individual and 10 minutes for group representation.  I explained to the chairman I was representing the Newport Dory Fleet and the 8,377 petitioners; he responded adamantly “3 minutes only”.  So there I was editing my 10 minute presentation as I spoke and I don’t think it was very effective.  However, John Devore, a council staff member, gave summaries of the written public comments and he did an eloquent job summarizing my comment and mentioned several times of the 8,377 petitioners who urged the council to implement area management.  For that I am grateful.  Unfortunately, at this meeting the council was very unreceptive to all public comments.  This is a first in my experience of attending council meetings.   It was as if the council had predetermined the outcome of the issues before the meeting began.

 

On Wednesday the council heard from enforcement about the lack of resources and manpower that was available to enforce the councils complex regulations.  This is where we learned of a vessel monitoring system (VMS) that enforcement proposes to use as enforcement rather than relying on manpower.  It was very disheartening that the council was supportive of using VMS as an enforcement aid and they proposed that every permitted limited entry vessel have one installed.  The system works as signal to satellite to the receiver located in an office with many computer monitors and a watchman.  These systems track your vessels movement on a map at all times and if you violate a protected area you are in violation. The Coast Guard or fish and game warden is alerted and scrambles out a helicopter or vessel to escort you to shore and issues a citation, or confiscates your catch, or even your vessel.  Furthermore, the discussion was if you don’t comply with the monitoring system you are prohibited from all fishing activities.  To add insult to injury, the council proposes the fishermen pay for the system and pay a $1.00-$5.00 fee per day to be monitored. Does this sound like a police state to you?  It sure does to me!  What enforcement and the council are saying is that all fishermen are criminals before they commit a crime and they will monitor you for fear that you might commit a crime in the future.  They are putting the fishing industry under house arrest yet we haven’t committed a crime.  TELL ME, ARE WE STILL LIVING IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA…. The Land Of The Free?  What has happened to this country?  What right does the government have to put a monitoring device on us just because we are fishermen?

 

So as it stands, by the end of the council meeting… yes, they did give us fish for 2003, but we won’t be able to catch them unless we submit to their monitoring system that will track our every move, every minute, every day, while we are engaged in fishing.  This kind of socialistic regulation is a bit hard to swallow and I’m not sure my husband and I can choke this one down.  When they do implement the VMS regulation.

 

The Pacific Fishery Management council is out of control and something has to be done to make the Secretary of Commerce aware of the injustices that are going on.  The only thing I can think of is to have a letter writing campaign to the Secretary of Commerce, who is the overseer of Pacific Management Council, and show our disgust with such regulations that now violate our civil rights…. THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY. 

 

Again, we are asking for your support to write the entities in power requesting repeal of the proposed regulation, or an exemption for the Newport Beach Dory Fleet from such burdensome federal regulations.  It is well within their reach to relax such burdensome regulations under The Regulatory Flexibility Act that was enacted specifically to encourage federal agencies to give relief to small businesses that are adversely affected by such federal regulations.

 

Listed is the rationale for Newport Dory Fleet exemption from the VMS regulation:

 

  1. The Dory Fleet is restricted to launching and landing their vessels at the base of the Newport Pier.
  2. Fishing range is limited to a 30-mile range from the pier.
  3. We are high profile with open small dories with no place to conceal our vessels contents.
  4. Immediately after landing, our catches are weighed in public view and put on public display to sell.
  5. Our daily routine is consistent, launching and landing within a 1-hour timeframe every day.  What more could an enforcement officer ask, same routine, same place, same time.  This routine is exceptionally easy to monitor without a tracking device.
  6. Our Limited Entry Groundfish permits are only valid within the Dory Fleet and cannot be used in other fisheries in other areas. 
  7. The Dory Fleet is a historical landmark since 1891 and the only one of its kind in the United States.

 

Please, be sure you are asking for Dory Fleet exemption from the vessel monitoring enforcement program somewhere in your letter.  Politicians usually don’t respond if you don’t ask for something.  Because of language barriers it is difficult for many to write letters, I will put some sample letters on the www.doryfleet.com website as soon as possible.  You can print them out and use them as is, or change them to individualize your comment.  The Dory Fleet thanks all of you who continue to support our cause.  We sincerely hope we will be able to serve you, as we always have, with the availability of fresh locally caught seafood products.

 

Thank you,

The Newport Beach Dory Fleet fishermen

 

Send your letters before the Oct. 10th deadline for council comments.   Hopefully, we can win this battle at the Oct./Nov. council meeting.  However, if you can’t get your letter in by Oct. 10th it is still beneficial to send it in anytime until this issue has a final decision.

 

 

Dr. William Hogarth, Assistant Administrator National Marine Fisheries Service

NOAA Fisheries

1315 East West Highway, SSMC 3

Silver Spring, MD  20910

 

 

Secretary Donald L. Evans
Office of the Secretary, Room 5516
U.S. Department of Commerce
14th & Constitution Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20230

Phone: 202-482-2000

 

Email: devans@doc.gov

 

 

Acting Regional Administrator: Rod McInnis

National Marine Fisheries Service

Southwest Region

501 West Ocean Boulevard, Suite 4200

Long Beach, CA  90802-4213

 

Phone: (562) 980-4000

Fax:         (562) 980-4018

 

Email: rod.mcinnis@noaa.gov           

 

 

Mr. LB Boydstun, Designee Director

California Department of Fish and Game

PO Box 944209

Sacramento, CA  94244-2090

 

Phone: (916) 653-6281

Fax: (916) 653-4645

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Donald McIsaac, Executive Director

Pacific Fishery Management Council

7700 NE Ambassador Place, Suite 200

Portland, Oregon  97220-1384

 

Phone: (503) 820-2260  

Toll free:  (866) 806-7204

Fax:    (503) 820-2299

 

Email  pfmc.comments@noaa.gov