{"id":11755,"date":"2012-09-14T09:35:43","date_gmt":"2012-09-14T13:35:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/?p=11755"},"modified":"2012-09-14T14:42:49","modified_gmt":"2012-09-14T18:42:49","slug":"after-a-tenuous-year-n-h-fishery-receives-disaster-declaration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/2012\/09\/14\/after-a-tenuous-year-n-h-fishery-receives-disaster-declaration\/","title":{"rendered":"After A Tenuous Year, N.H. Fishery Receives Disaster Declaration"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story was written and produced for broadcast by Sam Evans-Brown, and edited for StateImpact New Hampshire by Emily Corwin. Hear the original broadcast<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n

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Roger Goun \/ Flickr<\/p>

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It\u2019s been a difficult year for New Hampshire fishermen. Although fishermen have stayed within their catch limits, stocks of codfish haven\u2019t rebounded from a decade-old collapse as quickly as expected.<\/p>\n

Facing cuts and closures imposed by regulators, New Hampshire fishermen say the government is putting them out of business. And Thursday, the government heard their call.<\/p>\n

The federal government declared a disaster in the Northeast Multispecies Groundfish Fishery, which could mean relief for struggling fishermen. <\/p>\n

Scientists are uncertain whether it is warmer oceans affecting maturation, too many predators, or something else entirely that has prevented the cod population from rebounding. Whatever the cause, fishermen will face an 80 percent cut in the number of cod they are allowed to land next year.<\/p>\n

Carl Bouchard is a fisherman from Rye. Before the federal disaster was announced, Bouchard addressed regulators and a crowd of fishermen in Portsmouth, arguing that the people who set the catch limits don\u2019t have to live with the results. \u201cThose people still got their jobs, most of them have got a good retirement plan, some of them even got a raise,\u201d he said to a cheering crowd. \u201cWho\u2019s accountable? The fishermen are the only ones who are held accountable for something they didn\u2019t do!\u201d<\/p>\n

The fishermen expressed a feeling of being punished for things beyond their control. Gill-net fisherman Jay Driscoll\u2019s hands shook as he handed three devices called pingers to NOAA administrator Bullard. Fishermen are required to hang pingers on their nets to keep harbor porpoises from getting caught in them. \u201cTwo of these pingers are working, one isn\u2019t. Maybe you could tell me which one because you\u2019re a very educated man.\u201d Neither the regulator, nor the fishermen could tell — which might be why too many porpoises have wound up in their nets. And because of the porpoises, NOAA is shutting down the Gill-net fishery for October and November, the two most profitable months of the year.<\/p>\n

Driscoll says this closure means he won\u2019t be able to make his mortgage payments. \u201cI have no problem with NOAA coming down and making sure I am compliant with every one of these things that goes on my net. I\u2019d rather you throw me in jail than have this kind of closure put on me right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

As of 2011, there were only 52 active ground-fishing boats left in New Hampshire — the fleet has been losing about five boats a year since 2007. The fishermen who are left say that the quota cuts and closures could be the final nail in the coffin of the New Hampshire fishing fleet.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why, during the last ten months, the governors of six Northeastern states have been asking Congress for $100 million in disaster relief funds.<\/p>\n

And just this week, the feds have granted that declaration. Unlike a FEMA disaster declaration, there is no pot of money already waiting for a failed fishery. Instead, it\u2019s up to the New England delegation to help Congress find those dollars. And after that one-time shot of money is spent, the question becomes: will Granite State Ground fishermen be able to hang on?<\/p>\n

NOAA administrator John Bullard says that all depends on rebuilding fish stocks. \u201cFish and fisherman. Every day we\u2019ve got to have fish and fisherman. That\u2019s the way I look at it. Any day we wake up and we don\u2019t have fish and fisherman, you know it\u2019s time to go home.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This story was written and produced for broadcast by Sam Evans-Brown, and edited for StateImpact New Hampshire by Emily Corwin. Hear the original broadcast. It\u2019s been a difficult year for New Hampshire fishermen. Although fishermen have stayed within their catch limits, stocks of codfish haven\u2019t rebounded from a decade-old collapse as quickly as expected. Facing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":11756,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[474,54,51],"tags":[548,30,508],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11755"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11755"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11761,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11755\/revisions\/11761"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/new-hampshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}