Keeping NH Fishing Licenses in State

For years, the fishing industry has held a healthy distrust of conservation groups, but a new partnership between The Nature Conservancy and a collective of NH fishermen is changing that.

Significant declines in ground fish population (cod, flounder, haddock and pollack) and reductions in federal limits of allowable catches have increased the financial strain on NH fishermen, who have seen their own numbers dwindle. Commercial boats actively fishing NH’s waters dropped from 21 in 2012 to 17 in 2013, says Mark Zankel, NH state director of The Nature Conservancy in Concord. Ground fish account for just 25 percent of total commercial fishing activity in NH. New Hampshire has 18 miles of coastline, so commercial fishing remains a relatively small industry here, generating about $17 million in annual revenue.

“It’s a tough business for local fishermen. Most of our fishermen do not have large scale operations,” he says, adding those still in the industry tend to be older. Zankel says its a lot harder for young fisherman entering the sector because the economics are tough.

To manage fish stocks and competition, federal limits on the amount of fish that can be caught are based on region, with each region allocated a finite number of licenses. The problem is as fishermen in New England retired or quit the business, their licenses were often bought up by larger, out-of-state fishing operations, as local fishermen could not afford the additional licenses.

“Once those permits go, they are not coming back,” Zankel says.

This only increased competition for local fishermen as these outfits have larger boats capable of spending days at sea whereas local fishermen are mostly equipped for day trips, says Joshua Wiersma, manager, Northeast Fishery Sector 11, a cooperative of NH fishermen that allows members to pool their quotas. It is one of 17 such cooperatives in the northeast and was founded five years ago by Wiersma, who has a PhD in natural resource economics.

As a result of similar challenges in the Gulf of Maine, the Nature Conservancy purchased two permits five years ago with a plan to release its quota to local fishermen at below market rates in exchange for participating in research in the Gulf.

The program caught the attention of Wiersma, who contacted Zankel in 2013 about buying permits in NH when they came up for sale. The Nature Conservancy bought two permits with the agreement it would sell them to the cooperative in five years for the same price the Conservancy paid, ensuring the permits and their quotas remain in the local fishery.

“Our long-term goal is to transition permits back to the local sector so they have greater capacity to have a viable fishing program and working sustainability principles,” Zankel says. “We want to use our permits to promote research with fisherman. We want to do research on the status of fisheries and [fish populations].”

“It’s made fisherman realize that organizing as a group gives us more political capital and [allows us to] manage the resource together in a way that’s mutually beneficial to one another and to enter into these unique arrangements,” Wiersma says. “It’s allowed us to be open to discussions with other environmental groups. That’s been really cool.”