Fishermen a big hit in D.C.

By Doreen Leggett

Will Nicolai and Ray Rowell had been talking a lot of sports, starting at 2:45 a.m. when they left the Cape for Washington D.C. and between meetings with Congressional representatives on Capitol Hill through a warm spring day.

Walking into the office of Representative Rob Wittman, R-Virginia, Nicolai, who fishes on the Constance Sea, and Rowell, working at the Fishermen’s Alliance, kept at it, bonding with interns and staff over a conversation about Texas A&M legendary quarterback Johnny “Money” Manziel and the dashed playoff hopes of the San Antonio Spurs.

Later, at a meet and greet at a restaurant called Mr. Henry’s on April 29, the two had another in-depth conversation about Boston sports with Matthew Sheffield, whose job interview with his boss Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey started with a conversation about the Red Sox and Indiana football.

Despite the extreme polarization of government, sports was a unifying subject.

Nicolai and Rowell joined other members of the Fishing Communities Coalition, which represents fishermen in coastal communities from New England, the Gulf of America, California and Alaska, and found the importance of small-boat commercial fishermen also proved to be a common denominator on both sides of the aisle.

• Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Tim Kaine (D-VA), introduced the “Save Our Seafood Act” which would exempt fish processors from the H-2B visa caps to help the seafood industry meet workforce demands.
• Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) co-sponsored the Fighting Foreign Illegal Seafood Harvest (FISH) Act, which would combat international illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing .
• Representatives Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) and Wittman reintroduced legislation to safeguard and strengthen America’s working waterfronts.
• Senators Angus King (I-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), introduced the Fishing Industry Credit Enhancement Act, which would provide access to loans from the Farm Credit System for businesses that supply qualifying goods and services to fishing fleets.
• Senators Markey, Elizabeth Warren, (D-MA) and Sullivan, as well as Representatives William Keating, Seth Moulton, both of Massachusetts and Mike Ezell, of Louisiana, supported the Young Fishermen’s Development Act to provide professional training to commercial fishermen.

FCC was able to visit many of those offices and more, voice support for those proposals, and bring forward issues important to fishermen on every coast.

“Legislators may not fully understand the unique challenges faced by fishermen,” said Jamie Bassett, involved in several fisheries on the Cape, who made his first trip to Capitol Hill with the group. “Face-to-face advocacy offers a chance to humanize the industry and provide first-hand accounts of the economic, environmental, and social impacts of specific regulations.”

Top of mind were cuts and further reductions at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA.

Fishermen were already being impacted by seasons not opening on time, delays in issuing permits, and beneficial programs axed.

Rowell said that as permit bank director for Fishermen’s Alliance he has to move quota so fishermen can use it to go fishing.

“Our system crashes daily,” Rowell told the office of Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed. “Cuts have made this worse.”

Kinsey Brown, who fishes in Alaska, told of similar issues where lack of staffing meant confusion over if permits would be issued and if the season would start on time. With fishing seasons so short, missing a few days or a week can mean being shut out of the market, imports filling the orders.

“(Fishermen can) lose so much time and money,” she said.

Fishermen on every coast are deferring maintenance because of all the uncertainty. Maddie Lightsey, who owns Alaska Boats and Permits, said in coastal communities the struggles and economic losses to fishermen reverberate far beyond the shoreline.

“Communities fall apart,” she said.

The comments were echoed in a host of offices, including Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Louisiana, the House Majority Leader.

“I used to get my permit in 24 hours, this year it took nine days,” said Anthony Colletti, who fishes out of Leesville, Louisiana and is a member of Gulf of America Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance. “We need to keep our boats in the water; we need to keep bringing in domestic seafood.”

The Shareholders’ Alliance and other FCC members highlighted the strengths of President Trump’s Executive Order: Restoring America’s Seafood Competitiveness.

“The United States must address unfair trade practices, eliminate unsafe imports, level the unfair playing field that has benefited foreign fishing companies, promote ethical sourcing, reduce regulatory burdens, and ensure the integrity of the seafood supply chain,” it states.

The group also emphasized the need for fishermen’s voices in implementing that order and in fisheries management, as well as continuing core NOAA functions.

“We can’t deliver on domestic seafood without that,” said Harmony Wayner, an indigenous commercial and subsistence harvester from Bristol Bay, Alaska and a fisheries scientist.

Colletti, who lives in Florida, and Rowell also spoke of the need for up-to-date information from the National Weather Service, which has seen deep cuts. Fishing takes place in wild and dangerous environments, for small boat fishermen the risk is even more pronounced.

Rowell said when he fished for sea clams, leaving from Wellfleet and Provincetown, “you need to check multiple buoys multiple times before you decide it is safe to go out.” He also decried the Coast Guard’s plan to remove numerous navigational buoys, akin to highway signs and important for safety.

Also of paramount concern was the importance of science and fears that research wasn’t happening, wasn’t being analyzed and wasn’t being incorporated.

Eric Brazer, deputy director of Shareholders’ Alliance, said NOAA could be streamlined, but essential services are at risk.

“We should be looking to trim the fat and create efficiencies,” he said. But a properly staffed NOAA and work done at the science center in Florida and in other centers across the country is vital.

“We need to protect stock assessments and data collection,” he said.

The need for research surveys was echoed by Senator Sullivan, who met personally with members of FCC.

“The federal government has to do two things: robust surveys for accurate stock assessments and timely regulations to open fisheries. That is it. When the federal government does not do that, you screw hardworking fishermen,” Sullivan said at a recent hearing.

Although large NOAA research vessels are still necessary many believe that collaborative research with fishermen has benefits.

Nicolai, who crews on the F/V Constance Sea out of Chatham, said there is often a disconnect between what fishermen are seeing on the water and what scientists are gleaning from models and surveys.

Scientists can go into an area and catch nothing and a fisherman can haul in 5,000 pounds.

“Scientists really don’t understand the practices of fishing,” Nicolai said.

The boat he crews on is involved in a number of projects, including getting better data on monkfish than the large federal research vessel that sampled offshore in the spring, at the time monkfish came inshore. That missed data never makes it into stock assessments.

“Some fishermen feel we could both benefit by working together,” Nicolai said. “This work kind of bridges the gap between fishermen and scientists.”

Ben Martens, executive director of Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association, said collaborative research is not only about science, it’s about economics.

“Fishermen are thinking, ‘How do I make a $300,000 investment and feel confident?’” Martens said. “It’s hard to build markets from one stock assessment to the next when (the species) is either too abundant or there are none.”

Martens told Senator Warren’s staff that fishermen are committed to sustainability that includes addressing regulators when inadequate science pushes for overharvesting.

“Scientists say there is a lot of pollock in the Gulf of Maine, fishermen just aren’t seeing them. How can we get a data set that isn’t three to six years old?” Martens said.

Jamie Bassett, who unloads and packs fish at the Chatham fish pier, said if there is one thing small-scale fishing businesses need, it is “processing, processing, processing.”

Chatham’s most abundant catch is skate, and only one company focuses on processing the winged fish, which is mostly exported overseas. Bassett said the local fleet needs processing to handle 7 million pounds in three months.

“If that processor were to go out of business it would shut an entire industry,” Bassett said.

Port infrastructure is also at risk.

Rowell said in his hometown Wellfleet the pier was partially condemned because it was too weak to hold fuel trucks. Then a wiring issue caused a fire which destroyed one part of the pier and the vessel of a fisherman with two young children. The origin of the fire remains uncertain. What also remains uncertain is the timeline to repair the only commercial wharf in town.

Colletti said he had to relocate after a hurricane hit six months ago. They still don’t have a dock and the shrimp industry is limping along.

“It’s been devastating,” he said.

Finding better ways to invest in working waterfronts requires funding and commonsense regulations.

“We have no path right now,” said Martens, adding it was difficult to get flood insurance, even though piers can be designed to be flooded.

Making the situation worse is that individual businesses are shut out of many federal loan programs.

“USDA has these great low interest loans that fishermen don’t have access to,” said Lightsey, who comes from a fishing family.

Bassett said getting in front of representatives in D.C. helps power legislative changes.

“Federal policies significantly impact the fishing industry, including regulations on quotas, catch limits, and environmental protections,” he said. “Trips like this provide a platform to influence these policies to ensure they are fair, sustainable, and economically viable.”

The final stop for the Cape Cod contingent was with Rep. Keating who talked about the impact of tariffs on small businesses, including fishermen, as well as his worries about looming 44-percent cuts to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers which will affect dredging.

He understood the need for good science, consistent training opportunities and the multitude of pressures fishermen face.

“It is still the most dangerous occupation,” he said. “You have a limited number of days; you can’t be wrong.”

Then there was a race to the airport peppered with talk about the Celtics playoff win against the Orlando Magic the night before – short-lived optimism, at least as far as sports goes.  Thanks to efforts from fishermen across the country the future of coastal communities looks brighter.