Community-based Sectors for the New England Groundfish Fishery

Under current sector regulations, sectors can not buy, sell or trade ACE with other sectors. They
must constrain their catch of all species for which they have sector allocations to those annual
allocations. If more sectors are authorized, substantial gains in profitability for sectors may be
realized by allowing sectors to trade ACE.
There are some communities, such as some in Downeast Maine, that had traditionally had some
involvement in the groundfish fishery, but no longer have any fishermen with permits with “A”
DAS and catch history. Sectors in conjunction with permit banks could provide an opportunity
for permit owners and communities without “A” DAS and catch history to reenter the groundfish
fishery. Individuals that hold groundfish permits with only “C” DAS could enter a sector without
purchasing a new permit and could have access to that sector’s allocation. A sector could be
created with a permit bank to acquire catch history for this purpose.
In sum, although there has not been an explicit program to facilitate development of communitybased
sectors, the opportunity exists to do so and a number of them are likely to evolve in the
coming years. These community-based sectors can serve dual goals of improving the profitability
and safety of groundfish fishermen and also allowing communities to retain or regain their
involvement in the groundfish fishery. However, there a number of barriers that are impeding
development of community-based sectors and fuller utilization of sector management in general.
Listed below are a number of recommendations that may facilitate more effective use of sectors
by fishermen and communities. These include actions that could be taken by NMFS
independently, regulatory reforms that may be included by the Council in Amendment 16, and
creation of new financing program that would require federal legislation:
Recommendations
1. To facilitate individual permit holders’ evaluation of their decision of whether to join a
sector, NMFS should compile the catch histories by fish stock of all permitted groundfish
vessels and inform all current permit owners of the process of acquiring their catch history
and the specific forms and signatures required for release of their catch history to them and to
a sector organizer and or sector manager.
2. The NEFMC should authorize a streamlined process for sector approval that does not require
a Council framework action and reduces the burden of documentation and regulatory analysis
that must be done by sector organizers.
3. The NEFMC should allow sectors to trade some proportion of their ACE allocations with
other sectors within the fishing year to facilitate catch balancing and greater utilization of
ACE portfolios.
4. The NEFMC should fix the allocation baseline for determining individual permit holders’
contributions to sector allocations and decide how overall sector allocations are adjusted with
movement of individuals in, out and between sectors. Future catch privileges associated with
individual permits, whether in the context of sectors or other management systems, should be
unaffected by how catch privileges are utilized within sectors.
5. The NEFMC should explicitly authorize community-based sectors to form permit banks that
can hold permits and contribute catch history to the sector. This recommendation is not meant
to imply that multiple permits from a single vessel could be split.
6. Congress should create financial resources for development of community permit
banks through a loan guarantee program or a direct loan program modeled on the
industry funded buyback structure.
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