Northeast Summit: Saving Seafood Issues Brief

http://www.savingseafood.org/management-regulation/overview-of-topics-for-upcoming-meeting-2.html

Northeast Summit: Saving Seafood Issues Brief
Topics include the new skate stock information, industry concerns around sector managment, the accuracy of pollock science, U.S.–Canada transboundary arrangement, whether joining sectors was really voluntary, whether sectors are catch shares, and whether there is appropriate economic analysis of fishing regulations.

by Jonathan Hemmerdinger
Saving Seafood Contributing Writer

New skate stock information emerges
New skate studies indicate that skate catch reductions under the soon-to-be-implemented Amendment 3 are not needed. "More recent information and the errors have led us to understand that those reductions aren't necessary," said Tom Dempsey, a policy analyst with the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen’s Association. "There is no conservation benefit of these cuts. Harvest at the status quo is acceptable."
It's a critical issue, Dempsey added, because many ground fishermen, now facing possible cuts under sector management, also rely on skate revenue. The new skate regulations, which cut the daily trip limit from 10,000 to 1,900 pounds of skate wings, may result in $9 million of lost revenue, say the group. Most impacted will be the communities of Chatham and New Bedford, Mass., and Point Judith, R.I., where some vessels may see revenue fall up to 50 percent.
In a Feb. 17 letter to regional administrator Patricia Kurkul, CCCHFA said the new regulations will "force hundreds of struggling fishermen out of business while serving absolutely no conservation purpose."
The group requested NMFS "fast track the incorporation of the most recent skate assessment data and set FY2010 total allowable catch and trip limits accordingly."
Julie Wormser of the Environmental Defense said the new information could lead to increases in skate catch. "There are three fisheries in New England in which new data would appear to increase the [annual catch limits], skate, pollock and dogfish," Wormser said in an email. "It looks like skate is on track to have this new data considered by the New England Council at its April meeting … This could increase the 2010 [skate catch] in time for the start of the fishing season."
CCCHFA staffers and fishermen are planning a March 15–16 trip to Washington, D.C., to discuss skate and dogfish concerns with law and policy makers, said Dempsey.
See related: Fishermen: Catch limits go too far, Cape Cod Times

Sectors raise industry concerns
Many fishermen and industry insiders fear that Amendment 16's sector management plan for Northeast multispecies will lead to industry consolidation and lost fishing jobs.
Even Council members concede sectors will likely lead to job loss. In an interview, Thomas Nies, a fishery analyst on the New England Fisheries Management Council, said, "It is completely realistic that there will be fewer fishermen. There isn't any question that will happen. It's an expected outcome."
And the sector program’s requirement that all sector fishing cease once fishermen reach their quota on any of some twenty species may cause sectors to shut in only months, say some.
Vito Giacalone, policy director at Gloucester-based Northeast Seafood Coalition, said fishing rests on the “weakest link”—species with small quotas that act as the “circuit breaker of the system.” Once that species' quota is reached, he said, “the system shuts down.”
Brian Rothschild agreed. "Once you reach your [limit], everybody has to close down," he said.
Pollock are one of several so-called “weakest links," also called "choke stocks," that fishermen fear can cause sector-wide closures.
Carlos Rafael, whose 44 ground fish permits make him one of the largest permit holders in Massachusetts, explained: boats that target gray sole or plaice, he said, also likely haul pollock as bycatch—all three species swim in the same deep ocean water.
But pollock quotas might be lower than sole or plaice quotas—possibly much lower. "If you haul 500 pounds of pollock [but] you only have 50 pounds of quota … you shut down the whole sector," Rafael said.
In his letter to Lubchenco, Frank said he fears job loss from sectors. “Recommendations for severe reductions in catch to ground fish species such as Pollock as well as the restrictive allowable catch of cod and yellowtail would all but ensure that many who rely on this commercial fishery will be forced out,” he wrote.
Frank urged NOAA “do everything within its power” to increase access to fish stocks that are harvested under allowable limits. In addition, he urged the agency to develop a strategy to avoid bycatch—“the needless waste of fish that are simply thrown overboard, with most dying or already dead”—a practice that he said results in the loss of millions of dollars in revenue that could otherwise benefit fishermen.
Frank said he is “generally opposed to sectors” and concerned the plan will leave fishermen in economic distress. “Who will bail them out?” he asked.
Lubchenco responded that while not a “panacea” for every fishery, sector management plans are worthy for consideration. And the plan was originally proposed by members of the ground fish industry, she said. Lubchenco added that two existing sector management plans in New England have proven successful.
As for reducing bycatch, Lubchenco said the agency isn’t relying on sectors alone. But she said the plan’s provisions require sector vessels to land only legal-size fish, which “should help reduce” legal-size discard. “Common pool” vessels—those whose owners chose not to join a sector—are required under Amendment 16 to use selective gear to minimize the catch of overfished stocks, she said.
See related: Sector Management promises benefits, faces obstacles, and raises concerns.

Is pollock science accurate?
In his letter to Lubchenco, Barney Frank said he is concerned about disagreement over the science used in the pollock stock assessment. “The stock could be very abundant,” Frank wrote, and the total allowable catch (TAC) could have been “set too quickly.”
"This is no small matter as this species could trigger the shut down of the entire multispecies fishery."
In her response, Lubchenco said her agency will conduct a “benchmark assessment” of pollock stocks in June 2010. “This will be a complete reexamination of the pollock resource and will be independently reviewed through the New England Fisheries Science Center’s Stock Assessment Review Committee.”
“I agree that, given the importance of stock assessments to the management of our fisheries, it is vital that we involve the industry to hear their concerns, answer their questions and help them understand our science,” Lubchenco wrote.
In a Jan. 29 letter responding to Lubchenco, Frank said the NOAA head had "squandered" the opportunity make changes to pollock and other quota, it was reported.

Agreement or understanding? The U.S.–Canada Transboundary arrangement
Under the Magnuson-Stevens Act, most overfished stocks are required to be rebuilt within ten years. However, the act has an exception for fish stocks “under and international agreement.”
But the U.S. State Department has said the U.S.-Canada fisheries arrangement is an “understanding,” not an agreement. That means tighter restrictions on fishermen.
In his letter to Lubchenco, Frank said the agreement could negatively impact U.S. fishermen. He suggested that the "issues and complications" not be addressed piecemeal, but “rather in comprehensive and strategic fashion.”
“I suggest you form a NOAA task force involving your staff and members of the industry to develop a comprehensive plan for fisheries interactions with Canada,” Frank said. He called on Lubchenco to be directly involved in the discussions.
In her response, Lubchenco said the U.S/Canada management issue is “important” to NOAA and that the agency has been working on the issue with congressional staff and the fishing industry.
In December, Frank and Maine Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R) each introduced legislature to amend the Magnuson-Stevens Act so that the United States-Canada Transboundary Resource Sharing Understanding is defined as an agreement.

Economic analysis of proposed fishing regulations
In his letter, Barney Frank said all proposed fishing regulations—including the northeast sector management plan—should be accompanied by “readily available and substantive economic analysis.” “This information must be provided in a manner that is both accessible and easily understood by those who are most affected: fishermen, shore side businesses, coastal communities, etc.”
Frank added, “I am concerned that the catch share concept may not be viable for some sector groups.”
Lubchenco responded that economic analysis are “routinely conducted” to inform the Council about the impact of regulatory actions. The analysis, Lubchenco added, “are a requirement of both the Magnuson-Stevens Act and the Regulatory Flexibility Act” and can range from “qualitative discussions to detailed quantitative estimates.”
As for sectors, Lubchenco agreed “that it will be critical to fully understand the economic impact” and that analysis should be shared with “impacted stakeholders.”
Frank’s concerns mirror industry concerns. Most catch-share programs—similar to sector plans—grant fishing rights (in the form of quota) to fishermen. Quota can also be bought and sold.
In the United States, 15 catch-share programs manage species including red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico, sablefish in the Pacific Northwest, and king crab in the Bering Sea, according to a report by the environmental arm of nonprofit Pew Charitable Trusts.
Environmentalists say catch shares align fishermen’s interests with environmental interests (healthy oceans mean more valuable shares, they say),
But the programs add a cost structure to fishing—fishermen must buy (or be granted) shares. That, said Bonnie McCay, chair of the department of human ecology at Rutgers University, can disrupt the traditional career progression of aspiring fishermen. In the past, kids worked their way up from crewmembers to small-boat owner-operators. But catch shares impose a massive cost of entry on fishing because you have to first buy shares. As a result, many kids from poor coastal communities no longer can afford to work for themselves.
The programs can also lead to consolidation of fishing rights under corporations. Linda Behnken, executive director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen's Association in Sitka, Alaska, said the catch-share plan implemented in the Alaska crab fishery in 2004 has caused the loss of virtually all crab jobs in small, rural Alaskan fishing communities. The fleet consolidated, she said, under few owners, some who lived nowhere near the sea.
See related: Sector Management promises benefits, faces obstacles, and raises concerns.

Are sectors really voluntary?
Under questioning from Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) in a Feb. 24 budget hearing, NOAA Deputy Under Secretary for Oceans and Atmosphere Mary M. Glackin called the sector management plan a voluntary program that most fishermen had chosen to join.
"In the Northeast, in the sector management there, 95 percent of the fishermen, even though it's a voluntary program, have enrolled," Glackin said.
But fishermen call NOAA's claims misleading and they say the agency rigged the system so that the alternative to joining a sector—fishing in the so-called common pool—is not a viable option for most.
In a sector, fishermen are guaranteed a portion of the quota based on their catch history. But the common pool has a common quota, based on all fishermen's catch history. And the common pool is derby-style—fishermen race to fish before the quota is reached.
Giacalone said fishermen with substantial catch histories have no incentive to fish in the common pool, where other fishermen can catch their quota. And once the quota is reached, regardless of who catches it, the common pool closes. "If someone goes fishing before you and catches a large amount … the entire common pool is shut down," Giacalone said.
Because sectors guarantee fishermen at least a portion of the quota, they are the only real option for most fishermen. "When you restrict and limit … the alternatives so that the only thing left is the one that gives you even a half of chance, how voluntary is that?" Giacalone said.
David Goethel, a New Hampshire ground fisherman who joined a sector, agreed. "For most people with any history at all, they will do poorly in a sector but disastrous in the common pool."
Giacalone added that Glackin's comments wrongly imply fishermen "asked to have" sectors. "It looks like NOAA is looking to use industry leaders as scapegoats for creating this," he said. "It makes me feel like I am being thrown under the bus."

Are sectors catch shares?
The Magnuson-Stevens Act defines Limited Access Privilege Programs, of which individual fishing quotas are a type, as programs granting fishermen a share of the total catch, commonly called a catch share. Under most LAPPs the shares act as property that can be bought and sold.
In the 2007 reauthorization of Magnuson-Stevens, a provision spearheaded by Barney Frank was added requiring that Northeast LAPPs be approved by fishermen. "The New England and Gulf Councils may not submit, and the Secretary may not approve or implement, a fishery management plan or amendment that creates an individual fishing quota program … unless such a system … has been approved by more than 2⁄3 of those voting in a referendum among eligible permit holders," said the act.
The Northeast sector management plan, however, was not considered an IFQ program by NOAA. No vote was held.
In a Sept. 2007 letter to Council Executive Director Paul Howard, NOAA Regional Administrator Patricia Kurkul said the agency determined that under the Magnuson reauthorization "an IFQ does not, for the purposes of the referendum requirement, include a sector allocation."
And "sector allocations, as currently implemented by the Northeast Multispecies [Fisheries Management Plan], do not appear to be LAPPs because they do not "involve the allocation of specific quantity of fish or a portion of the TAC," Kurkul said.
But the sector plan acts very much like a LAPP, some say, because it guarantees fishermen a portion of the catch and allows transfer of quota.
"If it walks like a duck, it's a duck," said Brian Rothschild. "People are being allocated the public's resource."
Even NOAA has called sectors catch shares. In a Dec. 11 editorial in the Gloucester Daily Times, NMFS head Jim Balsiger wrote, "One of four new catch share programs expected to start in the next year is the sector program in the northeast groundfishery."
Some in the industry says NOAA's decision not to classify sectors as LAPPs allowed the agency to push through a catch-share style plan without a vote.
"What I [don't] like is that sectors were a way to circumvent the referendum," said Harriet Didrickson, who owns New Bedford Ship Supply and has been involved with the fishing industry most of her life. "If they went to ITQs, they [would need] a referendum" of fishermen, she said.
Rothschild added he thinks NOAA's decision to forgo of referendum contradicts the "intent of Congress, which is that you don't go into a property rights systems in the Northeast without having a referendum," he said. "There is no question that sectors are property rights systems."
But some industry insiders see benefit to the sector plan not being classified as an LAPP.
Vito Giacalone, policy director at Gloucester-based Northeast Seafood Coalition, said because LAPP's involve property rights—fishermen own shares—changes to the plans can be difficult to implement.
"If it was LAPP, [the shares are a] commodity," Giacalone said. "It's hard for council to take [those] away" from fishermen.
That's an important point, Giacalone said, because sector management is brand new and its impact is unknown. Many fishermen fear the plan will cause widespread job loss. Others think the industry will consolidate under corporate ownership.
If such problems arise, the sector management plan could be modified more easily because it's not an LAPP. Improvements could be made without disenfranchising fishermen of property rights.
"[This plan] is a benefit to the fishery [over an LAPP]," he said. "It's more open to management changes if it turns into a problem … the fishery can respond to negative social and economic consequences."
Property rights granted under LAPPs can also attract non-fishing investors, Giacalone said, which could push share prices above levels ordinary fishermen can afford.
That's another reason he thinks sector quota must not be confused with LAPP property ownership. "This may mitigate some of the negative socio-economic effects that many quota share systems have experienced."

Sector Management promises benefits, faces obstacles, and raises concerns.

http://www.savingseafood.org/management-regulation/sector-management-promises-benefits-faces-obstacles-and-raises-conc-2.html

Sector Management promises benefits, faces obstacles, and raises concerns.

With this story, Saving Seafood begins an in-depth series examining major issues facing the industry that will be discussed in March at a fisheries summit, currently being planned by New Bedford Mayor Scott Lang's Oceans and Fisheries Task Force. The Task Force is chaired by Dean Emeritus Brian Rothschild of the School for Marine Science and Technology at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

The first installment in the series looks at Sector Management, the system of implementing Catch Shares, currently planned to be implemented in the northeast fisheries this spring. Catch Share management is the policy for fisheries management adopted by NOAA under the Obama Administration.

by Jonathan Hemmerdinger

Special to Saving Seafood

NEW BEDFORD, Mass – Feb. 17, 2010 - At a meeting of New Bedford Mayor Scott Lang’s Oceans and Fisheries Council last week, northeast ground fishermen and industry insiders expressed fear about the loss of fishing jobs and fishing revenue after the May 1 implementation of the "sector" management plan approved in January by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

"We are looking at a 50 percent to 75 percent [reduction] in vessels," said Richard Canastra, co-owner of the Whaling City Seafood Display Auction in New Bedford and the Boston Seafood Display Auction, in an earlier interview. "They aren't given us enough fish to fish on."

Thomas Nies, a fishery analyst on the New England Fisheries Management Council, agreed that jobs will likely be lost. "It is completely realistic that there will be fewer fishermen," he said in a phone interview. "There isn't any question that will happen. It's an expected outcome."

Under the plan, Northeast ground fish permit holders—fishermen who target species such as cod, haddock, pollock and flounder—can join fishing cooperatives called sectors and fish under agreed restrictions. Sector fishermen are guaranteed a portion of the total quota based on each member's historical catch.

In New England, fishing sectors have existed on a very limited basis, but the impact on New England fisheries under a widespread implementation are uncertain, said Brian Rothschild, who chairs Mayor Lang’s council and is dean emeritus at the School for Marine Science and Technology at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

"People I speak to don't know if sectors will be economically viable," he said.


THE WEAKEST LINK

Fishermen and others in the industry are concerned with how the sector plan manages quotas.

Mark Grant, a NOAA policy analyst, said the agency manages 20 stocks of fish in three geographic areas: the Gulf of Maine, George’s Bank and Southern New England. But those 20 stocks are composed of only 14 fish species because the agency splits some species into multiple stocks. There is a George’s Bank cod stock, for instance, and a Gulf of Maine cod stock. There are three stocks of yellowtail flounder.

Five species—pollock, white hake, American plaice, witch flounder and redfish—each have only one stock, called an East Coast stock, said Grant. For those species, their stock area footprint covers all three major eastern fishing grounds.

Under the sector plan, sector fishermen must cease all fishing in a geographic area once they reach or exceed the quota on any of the 20 stocks, Grant said. For instance, fishermen who reach their George’s Bank cod quota can no longer fish for anything on George’s Bank.

Likewise, fishermen who reach their quota on pollock—a so-called “choke stock” with a three-area footprint—can no longer fish anywhere on the East Coast, Grant said.

It’s a regulatory framework that Vito Giacalone, policy director at Gloucester-based Northeast Seafood Coalition, said is based on the “weakest link.” He calls the species with the small quotas and wide footprints the “circuit breaker of the system.” Once that quota is reached, he said, “the system shuts down.”

The result, said Richard Canastra, is that entire sectors could be shut down within a matter of months.

Carlos Rafael, whose 44 ground fish permits make him one of the largest permit holders in Massachusetts, explained how the closures might happen. Boats that target gray sole or plaice, he said, will also likely haul pollock as bycatch—all three species swim in the same deep ocean water.

But pollock quotas might be lower than sole or plaice quotas—possibly much lower. As a result, "if you haul 500 pounds of pollock [but] you only have 50 pounds of quota … you shut down the whole sector," Rafael said. And because Pollock is one of the species with a single East Coast stock, fishing shuts down in all three areas.

Rothschild called Rafael's concern legitimate. "Once you reach your [limit], everybody has to close down," he said.


LACK OF SYSTEMS

Giacalone said an effective electronic system to track landings and quotas of multiple species is critical to the success of sector management plans.

Unfortunately, those systems largely don't exist, he said. As a result, "the sectors can't respond quickly enough to avoid having to shut down."

Still, Giacalone said he "reluctantly" supports the sector plan because it is better than the other options. "It's the best shot at keeping the most people in the [fishery]," he said.

Nies of NEFMC said there are some possible alternatives to total sector closures, "but it remains to be seen if any of them will get used." One option, he said, is that the Council could possibly permit some fishing to continue but with gear restrictions. For instance, to avoid catching yellowtail flounder, fishermen could be restricted only to long lines.

Another option is for sectors to purchase addition quota from other fishermen. But Nies said fishermen might be reluctant to sell "something they already don't think they have enough of."

"The trade will develop," he said, "but it will take a little time"

MORE FISH, LOWER QUOTAS

In addition to the sector plan, the 2010 fishing year will see a slash in fish quotas from 2009.

Canastra said the 2010 quota for yellowtail flounder was set at 1.2 million pounds, down from 3.5 million pounds in 2009. Overall, ground fish quotas in 2010 will be some 50 percent less than they were in 2009, he said.

Giacalone said Canastra's estimates are largely accurate. But, he said, it's difficult to know exactly because quotas vary by species. For example, pollock quota is down 66 percent this year, he said. And one of two cod quotas was slashed about 50 percent. But the Cape Cod yellowtail flounder quota is nearly unchanged.

Giacalone said the quota reductions result from a federal mandate that overfished stocks be capable of rebuilding within 10 years or less. As a result, he said, "low quotas are not necessarily the result of low stock size." The government can reduce quotas even on stocks that are growing—but perhaps not growing fast enough by federal standards, he said. "It forces you to catch less [even if] the stock is three times larger [than it was a few years ago]"

Congressman Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts), and Senator Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) have called for an independent study of the rebuilding timeline. “Fisheries are an economic engine for our coastal communities, and the Magnuson-Stevens Act includes a commitment to achieve optimum yield from our fisheries while minimizing adverse economic impact. Congressman Frank and I are asking NOAA to fund this study to determine whether the 10-year rebuilding timeline best meets these mandates,” said Senator Snowe. “The rigid and arbitrary 10 year rebuilding timeline was one of my major objections to the Magnuson-Stevens Act, Congressman Frank added.

Canastra said the quota cuts could result in lost fishing jobs and a fleet reduction. This follows the loss of some $250 million in revenue in 2009 as a result of “weakest link” management, according to Canastra.

New Bedford’s Harriet Didrickson, who owns New Bedford Ship Supply and has been involved with the fishing industry most of her life, also fears the sectors will force fishermen out of work. "[It's] another consolidation the fishery," she said. "We are [already] at the high end of unemployment numbers [here] in New Bedford. How far down do they want to drive us?"

Nies of NEFMC noted, however, that the industry has been shrinking for years, even before sector management was widely in use. In 2001, he said, 1,100 ground fish boats were fishing. In 2008 there were 600.

Nies added that sectors aren't a new or particularly radical management scheme. There have been some sectors in New England since 2004 and sectors are also used overseas. And the Pacific whiting fishery is regulated under a sector-like program.

The new sector plan in New England greatly expands sector management, but does so in light of "lessons learned" from other fisheries, Nies said.

Still, there's a feeling among fishermen that government regulators didn't adequately analyze the impact of the sector plan prior to approval.

"There hasn't been enough planning going into this," said Didrickson. "You can't be wrong on this. You have to get it right."

Permit holder Rafael agreed. "What is the government prepared to do if [this] fails? They never had anything ready if something malfunctions, and it will malfunction," he said.

A buyback program, where government or industry either individually or jointly pays fishermen not to fish by purchasing their permits, gear or vessel, is one option to help impacted watermen. But despite some industry support, the sector plan lacks a buyback.

Jimmy Odlin, a ground fish vessel owner and member of the New England Fisheries Management Council, said buybacks can reduce fishing fleets by up to 40 percent to 50 percent. The programs, which have been used in the Alaska pollock, Alaska crab and north Pacific ground fish fisheries, benefit remaining fishermen with greater quota.


CATCH SHARES

Sector plans, say industry experts, are a type of "catch-share," a controversial management programs in which fishermen and fishing entities are guaranteed a fixed share of the yearly quota, which can be caught on a flexible timetable. As with the sector plan, catch-share programs usually allow fishermen to buy and sell quota.

Catch shares are a departure from the fleet-wide quotas and effort controls of the past, when fishermen caught as much fish as possible during allowed time frames, before the season's quota was filled.

In the United States, 15 catch-share programs manage species including red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico, sablefish in the Pacific Northwest, and king crab in the Bering Sea, according to a report by the environmental arm of nonprofit Pew Charitable Trusts.

Some scientists and environmental groups like the Environmental Defense Fund say catch shares eliminate the quota “race” or "derby" and reduce overfishing and bycatch.

But opponents say the programs cost fishing jobs and lead to corporate consolidation of fishing.

For instance, in 2009, the federal government approved a catch-share plan for Northeast small-boat scallop fishermen. Under the plan, scallopers are granted a "share" of the scallop catch, which they can sell to other fishermen.

Tom Dempsey, a policy analyst with the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen’s Association, said that after the plan was implemented, the Cape Cod scallop fleet consolidated and permits migrated off Cape Cod as wealthier fishermen in bigger ports bought up other's shares. In 2005 there were roughly 120 active scallop permits on Cape Cod, Dempsey said, though not all permit holders fished regularly. Today, there are only 19 permits, he said.

Consolidation isn't unusual under catch share plans.

Linda Behnken is executive director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen's Association in Sitka, Alaska. In 2004, the Alaska crab fishery was converted to a catch share program. Though the plan improved safety—as the race to fill the quota was gone—Behnken said small, rural Alaskan fishing communities lost nearly all of their crab boats and fishing jobs. The fleet consolidated under fewer owners, some of whom lived nowhere near the sea.

And in the mid-Atlantic, the surf clam fleet shrank from 128 to 59 boats under a catch share plan, according to a report by Pew Charitable Trusts. The largest shareholders in that fishery were a bank and an accounting firm.

Bonnie McCay, chair of the department of human ecology at Rutgers University, has studied the social impact of catch share plans. McCay said poorly written plans can turn fishermen from self-employed to seafaring sharecroppers—dependent on far-away owners.

The plans can also disrupt the traditional career progression of aspiring fishermen, she said. In the past, kids worked their way up from crew-members to small-boat owner-operators. But catch shares impose a large cost of entry on fishing because you have to first buy shares. As a result, kids from poor coastal communities can often no longer can afford to work for themselves.

Despite industry concerns, catch shares are gaining momentum. In June 2009, President Obama established the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force, ordering it to recommend a "national policy that ensures the protection, maintenance and restoration” of the health of ocean.

A few days later, NOAA announced a new Catch Share Task Force to assist the agency “as they consider and implement catch-share management programs." Monica Medina, senior adviser to NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco, said in a statement, "Transitioning to catch shares is a priority."

News aggregators be wary: as newspaper close, so too does free content.

In recent days, just as the Rocky Mountain News announced it's closure, a few newspapers around the country announced a fundamental change in business: charging for online content.
On Feb. 26, Thomas Rutledge, chief operating officer of Cablevision, the corporate owner of Long Island's Newsday, announced that the firm would "end distribution of free web content," according to a Cablevision conference call transcript.
Likewise, on Feb. 27, according to a Wall Street Journal report the newspaper publisher Hearst announced plans to start charging for some of it's content. Hearst owns 16 daily newspapers, including the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Houston Chronicle, and the Albany Times Union.
Those events may be just the latest signs of an industry realizing that it must—MUST—stop giving away information for free.
A move away from free content has also been highlighted recently by a number lawsuits accusing news organizations of copyright infringement, as highlighted in a March 2 New York Times article called "Copyright Challenge for Sites That Excerpt."
According to the article, late last year in which Gatehouse Media, which owns 92 daily newspapers, accused The Boston Globe, owned by The New York Times, of copying headlines and lead sentences from Gatehouse newspapers.
Another such case involves The Associated Press, which accused All Headline News, an online news distributor, of copying A.P. stories.
Such legal cases are a byproduct of the state of online news, where free content and free publishing has sparked a boom of news aggregators—the websites, blogs, and quasi-news sites like The Huffington Post and the Drudge Report who specialize in distributing other's news stories. More and more, even traditional news organizations like Globe and the Times are engaged in aggregating.
When done legally, aggregating—also called scraping—is the process of posting a link to a story on another website, and perhaps a small excerpt from the story, according to the March 2 Times article.
In the past, many news organizations didn't fight aggregators because they drove traffic to the news organization's website. According to the Times article, however, media executives are growing concerned that aggregators are stealing too many potential readers, and profiting in the process.
According to the Times as a result, "some publishers are second-guessing their liberal attitude toward free content."
Those forces, as well as declining print revenue, said the Times, is leading major publishers like Heart and Cablevision and others to consider charging for content.
There might be two possible outcomes to the experiment to sell online news content. It could succeed, and news would no longer be free. Or it could fail, and with it so too might the news organization itself.
Neither of those scenarios are good news for aggregators—both mean that free information in the coming years may be much more difficult to come by.
It could be an example of the parasite killing the host.

Good Start to the Day

The water this morning around mile marker 28 of A1A in the Florida Keys was about how you would picture it in a dream: a mix of turquoise and green water cut by deep channels of dark blue. And the sky above was blue, but with but a few light clouds for contrast. I was there this morning at about 10 a.m., a little hyped by two cups of coffee, skimming happily over the flat water at 30 knots in a 20-foot skiff with a grin and the no particular destination because it's always the journey that's the best part.
I was out by myself and had left early because today was my last day on this trip to the keys and I wanted to squeeze in just a little more boat time. I came down from Washington, D.C. just four days earlier on a Friday night flight that got in late, after which I drove the hundred and fifty or so miles to Little Torch Key, 28 miles north of the end of the road.
And for the next few days—Saturday, Sunday, and Monday—I engaged in the activity that simply makes me happier than anything else on this earth: boating on salt water. I love it because the ocean is part of me and I was brought up on it and when I am near the water—particularly when I am upon it—I just feel better and the world seems like a lot more of a suitable place. Salt water is mysterious and comforting and always moving but always there waiting to welcome me back. And I always come.
And as I skimmed across the shallows this morning, the little boat on plane, the outboard engine trimmed nicely and humming, I thought how I do love this activity, and how I always will love it, and how if I had to describe myself to someone, I would start right here.

The Power of the Pen

Taxi Cab Learning

Last night I had a bit of an awakening, or, you could say, I came to a realization. And it came from a source that always seems to give good advice: a taxi cab driver.

Cab drivers are usually very smart guys: they are in the car all day either listeningto the radio of talking to passengers, hearing other people's stories. Cab drivers--at least in the Washington-area--are also usually immigrants. And being an immigrant, is a life experience that imparts a great deal of knowledge about the world. Not only do immigrants have an experience outside of this country, they also, with few exceptions, come from a country with greater hardships than the United States. They are smarter than you think.

"Where to?" the driver asked me as I sank into the worn back seat of his well-used Ford Crown Vic.

"Tulula," I said. That's the name of a bar and restaurant not too far from my house.

"That's it?" the driver replied. He was hoping for a better fare than the six dollars I'd give him for the one mile trip.

"Sorry, man," I told him. "But that's as far as I can afford to go." I have a habit of telling cab drivers lots of information about myself, so I didn't hesitate to tell him that the economy has me in a vice, and I can't really afford long taxi drives, let alone expensive dinners or high bar tabs.

I then told the driver that I was a writer and I was looking for work. That started a discussion about the power of the pen.

He told me, "It's stronger than the gun. You can do anything with that. Convincing people is a powerful."

I guess I had never thought about writing in that light before, especially with the declining state of the journalism industry, where paying for words has become antique and where newspapers are laying-off journalists by the bucketful.

But hearing it from a cab driver made sense to me. He was right--the pen is a powerful tool. The pen can topple governments, create uprisings, literally change the world. But it has other, less radical, purposes too. Being able to tell a good story has the power to turn ears, to entertain, to attract. Telling a good story with words isn't something that everyone can do, but everyone likes a good story.

I was inspired by that driver.

"Turn around," I told him. "Take me home. I want to write."

"No," he said. "Go out and see the world and see what happens. Then come back and put it on paper."

"OK, I will."

The cab squealed to a halt in front of Tulula and I handed my new friend six dollars.

"Don't Call Attention to it! Or, Let's Tell the Whole World:" Media Coverage of Media Irrelevance.

Jon Hemmerdinger
February 21, 2009

You might think mainstream media outlets would avoid highlighting their own demise. Why call attention to your own dwindling relevance?

But more and more, the media seem to cover the very changes that threaten their lives: the forces of citizen journalism and the decline of city newspapers.

The prevalence of citizen journalism is witnessed every time major news breaks. It happened in the November terrorist attacks in Mumbai, when hostages sent twitter messages of the ordeal.
Twitter users are also said to have broken the story of the US Airways flight that glided into the Hudson River.

"There's a plane in the Hudson. I'm on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy," tweeted one witness from a ferry boat on the scene.

Most recently, citizen journalist Anthony Trigilio posted online video on YouTube of the fire and mayhem following the crash of Continental flight 3407, which plummeted from the skies above Buffalo on Feb. 12.



But as citizen journalism has grown, so too has the mainstream media's coverage of the phenomenon.

The twittering Mumbai news breakers were highlighted in the Dec. 2 Los Angeles Times piece, "Mumbai news fished from Twitter’s rapids," by David Sarno. "Once a way for friends to keep each other updated on daily routines," writes Sarno, "Twitter is now looking more like a legitimate medium for short bits of information."

In a Jan. 16 blog called "Can a Tweet be a Scoop?" The New York Times called attention to the twitter-user who was among the first to make known the U.S. Airways crash.

And shortly after the Buffalo crash, the Buffalo News posted a story on it's website called YouTube and the Crash, in which a Buffalo News reporter interviewed Trigilio about his experience as a citizen journalist.

"Everybody seems to have their own little onsite-reporter-thing going on," Trigilio said.
It seems the mainstream media is covering the very forces that have caused the industry so much heartache in recent years.

There are other examples.

In a Feb. 11 article in The Wall Street Journal titled, "Why You Don't Want to Die on a Sunday in Detroit," Jeffery Zaslow examines how Detroit may be affected when the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News reduce home delivery of the newspaper to three days a week next month.

Here's another similar recent example. On Feb. 5, NPR ran a story called, "Imagining a City Without It's Daily Newspaper," which looks at how a city—Hartford, Conn. and the Hartford Courant are the examples used—would be affected if the city's daily newspaper ceases operations altogether.

And though the NPR story makes a good point of telling why newspapers are important to society, the story doesn't hide from the fact that newspapers are in decline. The first graph reads: "Financial analysts say they expect some big dailies to fold, perhaps as soon as this year."

But though it may seem odd for the media to cover it's own problems, maybe this is a good sign for the industry; perhaps these are examples of the media beginning to accept the changing world of the news. Maybe that's first step to adapting.

Or, maybe it's reverse-psychology: stories about dwindling relevance might actually prove that traditions news companies are more relevant than we think.

The Path to Becoming a Journalist. Part 1

I just had this wonderful idea that I would catalog the journey that I have taken from a job in human resources sales to that of professional journalist. The only problem is that my journey started over a full year ago, so I have missed-out on reporting all of the interesting and crazy and scary things that have happened to me in the last 14 months. I won't try to recap it all, but i will provide just an outline of the last year, both for the selfish reason that I want a record of it and just in case anyone else might want to read it (though I doubt it).

I've always been a writer. I've always been a writer. I've ALWAYS been a writer. I was a writer when I was barely able to write the entire alphabet. I used to scribble stories in pencil on those wide-ruled pages that they gave kindergartners to teach them how to write letters. I remember one story was about big, mean, dragon-like creature that crept into little boys bedrooms in the dark of night to scare them. Funny a kid's imagination.

I continued to write all through middle school and through high school, where I actually wrote a really good poem called "Evening Watch," which I am still crazy about and which still pretty much expresses most of the emotions that define me.

But that's not what I am writing about. I am writing about writing, and the poem that I wrote in high school was some damn good writing, and for that I was proud.

I wrote all through college, too. Got a degree in history and creative writing, and promptly got a job in sales.

Seven years later I decided it was no use hiding from the fact that I was and always will be a writer. But how does one get into writing? I had barely picked up my pen in years, with the exception of a few brier periods of creativity. I didn't know where to start, and how someone could make a transition from sales to making money at writing. I knew how to write, but the business was just so alien.

I enrolled at Georgetown University in the fall of 2008 at the age of 30. In January of 2009, I started classes, exactly one week since having knee surgery. It was snowing that first day of class, and I was hobbling through slush on crutches, wincing in pain, with a metal brace on my leg. I made my way up to the doors of Walsh Hall, which is just across the street from the basement bar, The Tombs. I took the elavator to the third floor, and found my first class: Covering Other Cultures.