Richard Gaines
CNHI News Service
Gloucester, Mass. —
Capt. Joe Orlando has been a stalwart of the Gloucester, Mass., fishing fleet for more than 35 years.
He has an instinct for fish and an appetite for justice. Right now, he contends, there's a lot more of the former than the latter.
Orlando, 56, was a child when his family emigrated from Sicily in 1963 and settled in Milwaukee, where his uncle lived. But it wasn't right for Orlando's father, a fisherman in Sicily.
In the early 1970s, the family moved to Massachusetts to fish commercially.
"When we started, the health of the fish stocks was pretty good, but not as good as it is now," said Orlando, who maintains a fishing business with his son Mario via the 65-foot dragger Padre Pio.
It was the era of big offshore dragger boats. Intruders from Russia, East Germany and other countries were scooping up tons of halibut, haddock, cod and other prized groundfish in international waters off the U.S. coast, leaving little behind for American fishermen.
The fishermen complained and Congress responded with the 1976 Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act that extended U.S. control over the ocean to 200 nautical miles from the coastline. Foreign boats left and American fishing boomed.
But the government erred when it then encouraged a buildup of the fleet through easy credit. The result was a fishing "bubble" not unlike the recent real estate bubble. The excess of boats did nothing to protect the stocks of fish.
Orlando believes the government is erring today again by implementing a system of catch shares that he believes is unjust.
He recalls that, years ago, fishermen were advised to "get off of groundfish" to relieve overfishing of cod, haddock and similar species. Many fishermen did, shifting to other species whose stocks had not been weakened by fishing pressure.
But when the federal government last year decided to determine groundfish catch shares based on catch histories, they effectively penalized those who heeded its advice and rewarded those fishermen who "kept pounding the overfished stocks."
He sees another ethical lapse in the system. Although the Magnuson-Stevens Act requires equal treatment for all groups, the government last year voted to use 5-year catch histories for two special interest groups — Cape Cod hook fishermen and recreational fishermen — and a 10-year catch history for the main group of commercial fishermen.
The decision favored the two special interests because fish were more abundant during the 5-year window.
The effect, Orlando said, was like stealing. He estimates 1.2 million pounds of cod were denied the main group of commercial fishermen.
Orlando says he appreciates the way the catch share system guarantees him a given amount of fish and liberates him from the pressure to participate in "derby fishing” under the old days-at-sea system.
But the political decisions that made some fishermen winners and some losers, "that's just not right."
"I'll be OK," Orlando said, "but that doesn't make it right."
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Richard Gaines is a reporter for the Gloucester, Mass., Daily Times. Contact him at rgaines@gloucestertimes.com.
