III. Primary Ports: Community Studies
B. Gloucester, Massachusetts Go to map of ports
B1. Overview of Gloucester Groundfishing (Table 8)
B2. Port Infrastructure and Marketing
B3. Demographic Information on the MGF (Table 9)
B4. Fishing Associations and Organizations
B5. Adaptations and Adjustments to Crisis
B6. Fishing, Public Perceptions and the Management Process
B7.
Understanding Community Dependence on Fishing (Table 10)
B8. Changes
in Social Conditions in the Fishing Community (Table 11)
Founded in 1623, Gloucester has been a fishing
port for the last 372 years (Vickers 1995). The Dorchester Company
settled on Cape Ann and established the Massachusetts Bay Colony here in
1623. Prior to that time, vessels came to Cape Ann to fish in the summer
months and returned to England with their salted cod before winter. Staging
to dry codfish in the sun was set up in what is presently known as Stage
Fort Park. Dried cod was a major export for centuries. Groundfishing is
still the dominant fishing activity, and is pursued with gillnets, longlines,
and dragging gear. Inshore lobstering is of lesser importance, but landings
of lobster as secondary product have increased among the dragging fleet.
Unlike the Maine fisheries, groundfishing is not
summer oriented, but employs fishermen in a year round activity.
Table 8 shows the reported/preferred fishing activity for 75 respondents
(74 captains, 1 crew member) of a 1995 survey. This confirms the preference
for groundfishing as a primary fishing strategy in Gloucester. The impact
of new groundfish regulations will be more deeply felt in Gloucester than
Maine due to a high level of capital invested in groundfishing and the
large population of deckhands dependent on bottom dragging.
Most of the fish caught in the first 200 years
was for export or regional consumption. When the railroad came to
Gloucester in 1848, it opened the local fishing commerce to a wider national
demand for fish. Boston and New York became major fish markets. The railroad
also spurred tourism, and many hotels were constructed to fill the demand.
People came to Gloucester for its fishing and to experience the natural
beauty and cultural heritage of the port. This process of tourist development
and gentrification has accelerated in recent decades. An important component
of Gloucester's identity, enhancing its tourist industry, is America's
oldest art colony--the Rocky Neck village within Gloucester. Scenery and
architecture of the Cape Ann area have inspired generations of painters
and sculptors.
Tourism, conversion to a bedroom community, and
local high-tech industry have transformed historic Gloucester as it continues
to diversify economically and culturally. Light industry accounts
for thousands of new jobs in the area.
Gloucester's historical dependence on fishing
is revealed in the art and architecture of the community, both religious
and secular. Committing resources for the creation of occupationally
specific art and architecture shows a deep community dependence on that
occupation. Examples include Our Lady of Good Voyage Church, the Gloucester
fisherman statue, and the entrance mural of St. Ann's Church. A recent
event of significance is the dedication of the plans for the statue of
the fisherman's wife. The commission for this community symbol went to
a local artist, and a recent ceremony commemorated the commissioning of
the statue, which should be completed in three to five years.
Fishing life symbols do not occur in isolation.
They are integral parts of social rituals. Rituals are repetitive seasonal
actions that reveal the most deeply felt values of families and households
(Turner 1967). Rituals of saint worship, of the blessing of the fleet,
and seafood festivals are integrated with the secular and religious symbols
that are a part of the cultural landscape of the community. Symbols and
associated rituals are also representative of persisting social arrangements.
Such arrangements include working crews, family networks, social clubs,
fisher-processor credit relationships, and fishing associations.
Although commercial fishing is still a primary
industry (Gloucester was ranked second in 1995 in pounds landed on the
eastern seaboard) light industry and the service sector are gaining in
importance, and foreign imports have taken the place of domestic landings
for some local processors. The community's largest fishery employer,
Gorton's of Gloucester, processes and markets imported fish only and has
not purchased a pound of locally caught fish in 30 years. This is because
foreign labor and harvesting costs are lower, there are fewer restrictions
and the supply is, therefore, more predictable. Most processors have looked
to foreign suppliers to keep their businesses going. Their interests are
not as linked to the fate of the local fishing fleet as in the past.
Besides experiencing a reduction in fishing fleet
and supporting infrastructure of the past twenty years, the contemporary
fishing industry of Gloucester has gone through many changes. These
are due to technological innovation, competition, and recent scarcity of
certain fishing stocks along with increasing competition among a diversity
of stakeholders (Poggie and Pollnac 1980; Hall-Arber 1994). Reductions
in days at sea, closure of large areas, loss of the Grand Banks in the
Hague Line decision* and decline in stocks have reduced the viability of
the groundfishing fleet. Nevertheless, local fishing and related businesses
still employ an estimated 40 percent of Gloucester's population. Businesses
that support the local industry are small, locally owned and operated.
Estimates made on the impact of regulations for Amendment # 7 to the Northeast
Multispecies plan will eliminate more than 50 percent of these locally
based businesses (NMFS socioeconomic impact study 1994).
* Note by Clay: The Hague Line divides U.S. from Canadian
waters in an area where the 200 mile EEZs of the two nations overlapped.
The Line was created by a 1984 decision of the World Court in The Hague.
There are many occupational roles that support
the local fishing industry. These include processing plant workers,
lumpers, ice providers, truck drivers, electricians, boat operators/owners,
deck hands, gear suppliers, lawyers, social service providers, welders,
accountants, engineers, fuel suppliers, seafood processors, marine railway
owner/operators, refrigeration service providers, surveyors, and charter
boat owner/operators.
The commercial fishing fleet is divided into four
major gear groups. These are mobile gear (draggers) and three categories
of fixed gear (gillnets, longlines, and lobster pots). Other types of commercial
fishing include jigging, harpooning, diving for sea urchins, and various
types of trapping. Salmon aquaculture is being considered by one processor,
but has been held up for five years because of regulatory and financial
barriers. Other uses of marine resources include recreational and sportfishing,
and seasonal whale watching tours. Groundfishing with mobile gear remains
the predominant fishing strategy in Gloucester.
The traditional fishing fleet of Gloucester have
been ground trawlers, using stern or -- rarely -- side trawling techniques.
As in Maine, Gloucester's groundfishing fleet has three principal components:
1. Vessels over 70' in length that
fish from 7 to 10 days at a time. These vessels fish the Gulf of Maine
south in deeper waters primarily with otter trawls and occasionally offshore
gillnets. Traditional crews of 10 to 12 have been reduced to 4 or 5 individuals.
As of 1994, the city of Gloucester had registered 34 fishing vessels over
70'. However, only 25 of these are offshore vessels, and the other 9 are
too old to fish offshore and are restricted to work as medium or day boats.
2. Vessels ranging from 50' to 69'
(called medium sized vessels). Crews of two to three individuals fish with
dragging gear from 3 to 5 days in nearshore waters. As of 1994 there were
50 of these vessels.
3. There are also 236 fishing vessels
up to 49'. These vessels are considered day boats, and fish with gillnets,
longlines or otter trawls. Crews consist of one to two individuals.
Most of the fleet land their fish in Gloucester,
although larger vessels may land squid and other species in Portland or
Rhode Island. There has been a significant decline in landings due
to restrictions on days at sea and area closures. Vessels of all sizes
have been affected, although the larger vessels are having the most difficulty.
An informal survey of Massachusetts ports reveals that over the past two
years, more than 30 vessels (scallopers and/or draggers) have left the
fishery altogether, have moved to a different region/country, are waiting
to be scrapped, or are too expensive to re-outfit (Collins 1995). In New
Bedford, a total of 83 vessels have dropped out of the fleet over the last
five years (New Bedford Seafood Coalition 1996).
The fleet here is highly concentrated inside an
extremely sheltered harbor, and affordable docking space is at a premium.
With the introduction of ice plants in the late 1800s, iced fish
could be marketed throughout the eastern seaboard, establishing Gloucester
as one of the primary seafood ports in the nation. The existing processing
and cold storage facilities have a combined capacity of nearly 95 million
pounds. Replacement of this infrastructure would be prohibitively expensive
if the fishery were allowed to collapse. The modern state dock, built in
1982, was recently renovated with funds from the Economic Development Administration.
There are deep draft berths for 64 commercial vessels at the state fish
pier. However, the high docking fees and insurance requirements have kept
most commercial vessels off this dock. Scattered among the working vessels
are charter boat facilities and whale watching firms that have been taking
over spaces vacated by a dwindling groundfish fleet. Space limitations
mean most of the vessels must have some arrangement with a processing facility
or dealer in order to tie up their vessels.
Docking arrangements with facilities such as the
historic Gloucester Marine Railways have changed over time with escalating
industry costs. Some of the processing facilities have only a few
spaces, others have upwards of twelve, and others may have more. The lobster
fleet pales compared to the groundfish fleet, however, unlike the Maine
ports, where the opposite is true. Large dockside corporate firms, along
with some Japanese capital investment are mixed with smaller seafood buyers
and processors, boat docks, and ice, fuel, and oil suppliers.
Major infrastructure components of the Port of
Gloucester include the following:
A) fish marketing/processing
- Star fisheries (local, imports)
- Gorton's of Gloucester (imports only)
- Americold (local)
- Fuji USA Investments
- Ogawa USA, Inc.
- John B. Wright Seafood, (local)
- National Fish (fish broker)
- S. Parisi & Son Seafoods, Inc. (local)
- Mortillaro Seafood and Lobsters
- Al King and Sons Lobster company (East Gloucester)
- Steve Conolly Co. ( local )
- Captain Joe & Sons, Inc. (local)
- FBI Fisheries (local)
- Good Harbor Fillets (local)
- Cape Pond Ice Company, (ice products)
- Gloucester Marine Railways, drydock repair
- Ship Lantern Supply (buys local fish, and sells safety equipment)
- Roses Oil- drydock repair, sells fuel, oil and gear.
B) Fishing supply/repair
The
greater dependence on groundfishing in Gloucester as compared to Maine
ports also means a greater potential for economic dislocation from a crisis.
Overall, support infrastructure is at a premium, and there is little
that could be lost without this having a major impact on the ability of
the present fleet to operate.
The decline in the fish processing capacity has
not yet included transition into alternate shoreside activities, although
a herring processing operation and a fish exchange are planned. As
one support factory owner points out:
"There have been a number of steps that
have been adverse for the Gloucester community. When the Dehide(fish dehydration
plant) was closed down and then not replaced, that was in 1984 and that
was something that the people had never conceived of as being a long-term
scenario. They thought there was gonna be a replacement coming into
place, that people would be processing fish waste economically in some
form or another. And that hasn't happened now for 12 years. There's been
small-scale solutions with bait and with hydraulasafe fertilizers from
by-products and things. But there's no market for the volume pelagic waste."
Despite the internationalization of the market,
there has been a steady decline in local processing and marketing capacity.
The fish dehydration plant employed hundreds of workers for decades
until it was closed in 1984. There are presently a dozen local buyers,
including five processors. This is in contrast with dozens of buyers in
Gloucester before the passage of the Magnuson Act. A great deal of ambivalence
exists about the consequences of recent changes in the size of the fleet
and seafood dealers' attempts to hang onto old markets or explore new marketing
options.
The history of fish marketing has been characterized
by an unbalanced economic relationship that favors the buyers. Taking
advantage of fishermen is not uncommon, yet recently the balance has shifted
from dealers to favor fishermen to a greater degree, largely because of
the increased competition for the dwindling fleet of suppliers. As the
number of markets decline, the options available to the remaining suppliers
also becomes more uncertain as there is a decrease in the flexibility of
the market due to reduced competition for product. However, even though
there are few markets, the fleet of large draggers in Gloucester is so
reduced as to increase competition among dealers for the remaining
fishers.
Fish are generally sold whole frozen and shipped
to secondary markets where they will be processed to their consumer form.
It is ironic that Gorton's Seafood of Gloucester exclusively processes
foreign Quick Frozen Product (QFP) in lieu of local fish. There has been
added strain at Gorton's with locals as they have upgraded their processing
systems and eliminated laborers by automation and by raising the minimum
educational requirement for hiring to the GED level. Housewives and other
ethnic workers with limited education and poor English skills, formerly
able to find jobs in fish processing, have lost their jobs.
Today, higher fish prices mean that processor/marketers
don't need to run as much fish through their facilities to remain viable.
This does not help the suppliers (fishers), who are competing for
a scarcer product and increasing costs. Thus there are both negative and
positive consequences of a shrinking fleet, fewer overall pounds of fish,
and increased ex-vessel prices; this results from a marketing system that
has, historically, incorporated uneven power relations between fishers
and dealers into its operation. In an earlier study of the New England
fresh fish market, Wilson (1980) found that the situation surrounding individual
transactions between fishers and marketers was not based on free competition
for fair prices. Instead, the system was relatively inaccurate, slow and
unequal in the distribution of information about market conditions to buyers
and sellers, resulting in a high degree of uncertainty surrounding any
particular transaction.
Another problem was the private ownership of facilities
for off loading boats effectively precluded the existence of spot markets
with many buyers and sellers. These arrangements were traditionally
mitigated by the establishment of implicit contractual arrangements. For
example, in Gloucester, fishermen would be given credit for the purchase
of fuel and ice with the implication that they would sell their catch through
certain buyers, and that the debt accrued would be payed back with the
catch:
"It's fairly simple. The boat is extended credit typically, unless he's lost his credit. But the boat pulls up, he takes on ice, and the concept is it's the same as the fuel, the groceries to feed the crew--that when he comes in, that comes off the top of the trip as an expense of the trip that is paid, and then what's left over goes to the crew and to the owner and the skipper"
--Ice Plant Operator
Debt relationships extended to the wider community
to include bank loans for boats and second mortgages, food credit advanced
at local grocery stores, and delayed payment on supplies and services from
gear and repair shops servicing the industry. Traditional market
arrangements were further mitigated by being relatively long-term bilateral
exchanges.
Wilson (1980) reported that more successful cases
who were parties to bilateral arrangements tended to experience better
access to relevant market information, leading to more effective resource
allocations. Bilateral credit relationships have almost universally
disappeared in the highly uncertain atmosphere of the fisheries today.
In the past, arrangements further tended to constrain
potentially opportunistic acts by one party or the other. This did
not provide for sufficient flexibility in the market place to favor suppliers.
Wilson noted that what appeared to be highly significant about these relationships
is that "their widespread use tends to reduce seriously the amount
and quality of information generated by the market" (3:1980). One
remedy to improve the equity of price and market information has come in
the form of the fish auction based on the Portland model discussed above.
Star Fisheries in Gloucester is seeking state funds to open a local fish
market. They see this as an opportunity to add value to local product and
expand the market share.
Quality fish at high prices should help local
fishers get into new markets. Also, they anticipate creating many
shore based jobs for displaced fishers (crew and owner-operators). Initially,
25 jobs are anticipated from the market, with predictions of up to 100
in early development to 300 in later development. Job qualification for
the market fits the profile of displaced/retired fishers. Individuals are
needed who have hands-on familiarity with fish, and who can also sort and
grade fish for quality. Fishers can do this, without any significant retraining
activities. Most would not have to speak English or have any other skills
that they do not already have from working in the fishery.
A local fish auction in Gloucester would potentially
compete with the market in Portland, which presently draws fishers from
Gloucester and other ports outside of Maine. A smaller auction is
in place in New Bedford, but does not have the draw that the Portland operation
does. There, the large processing sector still dominates the flow of market
product and information.
Similar to the relations that emerged between
bankers and farmers in the Midwest following the 1980s farm crisis, credit
relations between banks and fishers and between marine suppliers and fishers
have deteriorated under the weight of negative publicity about groundfishing
and Amendments # 5 and # 7. Traditionally, suppliers of marine services
and trip supplies advanced captains oil, fuel, and ice, and captains could
postpone paying repair costs on their boats until they had brought in a
good catch.
Five years ago, fishers could also easily get
loans and credit from banking institutions in town, and some linked their
home mortgages to the boats when they purchased them, or when they made
major repairs on the boats. A 1995 survey of 75 groundfishers in
Gloucester reveals that 20 percent (15 out of 75) have their homes attached
to a fishing vessel mortgage (GFWA). Today, it is virtually impossible
to get a loan; fishers report that banking institutions are telling fishers
that they are "getting out of the fishing business" and cannot
risk investing in fishing.
As with the Portland case reported above, grocery
stores also used to lend fishers money to go out, but this practice has
stopped. Credit relationships with processors have disappeared with
increasing economic pressure on the industry, creating subsidiary problems
in the support sector. One supplier of fishing gear was stuck with orders
that have been purchased but not paid for or picked up. He is waiting for
back payment from some fishers, but they have not been able to fish because
of regulatory or boat repair costs.
The Marine Railway (GMFR) is also charging
dock fees, which was not done in the past. This has created bad feelings
with long-standing customers. However, the ability to pay fees has
put pressure on the owner to collect on old or delinquent bills. The GMFR
can no longer extend credit to fishers (it is recuperating after a Chapter
8 Bankruptcy filing). The fuel, ice and other products sold by processors
are more than the demand, thus there is competition among the processing
sector for the business of an ever shrinking population of fishers who
have an ever shrinking capability to repay.
Obviously, fish marketing in Gloucester is currently
in transition. Old systems of debt, loyalty, and uneven power relationships
between fishers and dealers have been eroding under the economic difficulties
and negative publicity facing the fleet; yet new systems have not been
developed to deal with new political economic realities. Any potential
increase in ex-vessel prices for groundfish deriving from a shrinking fleet
and reduced volumes of fish have been off-set by increased reliance on
imports driving down prices and new markets for formerly underutilized
species such as dogfish (key respondent). Combined, these factors have
generated additional instability in a market long characterized by uncertainty
and inaccurate information.
Overall, there are are 322 permitted vessels for
groundfish alone in Gloucester. These vessels employ 826 fishermen.
The 826 fisher families include about 500 wives and 1,000 children. Average
family size in the fishing industry is 5. This means that the total directly
on fishing is approximately 5,630. Those in the support industry who are
indirectly dependent on fishing include approximately 5,200 workers and
businesses owners/operators and their families, for a total fishery dependent
population of approximately 10,830. However, all of the residents of the
Gloucester community benefit from the waterfront and traditional character
of a community steeped in fishing history. Tourists and artists are attracted
to Gloucester because it represents a working fishing port, not just another
seashore community.
Many of the residents of Gloucester are descendants
from Nova Scotia who came to Cape Ann in the last century. The traditional
fishing peoples have included Canadian, Scottish, Yankee, Portuguese, with
most of the present fishing population of Italian descent. A large number
of these fishers have come from fishing ports in Sicily. They came over
here "seeking a better life." Migration was based on social networks
and kinship. Once a family was established with one or two individuals,
others would be urged to join them.
Just under 40 percent of the 27,000 residents
of Gloucester are Italian Americans, having arrived in two primary waves
of immigration. The traditional fishing family structure consisted
of extended kinship networks of fathers, brothers and cousins who worked
together on draggers. While men were responsible for fishing and earning
money, women took care of the household, onshore finances and child care.
This arrangement provided a very satisfying lifestyle that has been severely
strained by the fishing crisis. One respondent put it as follows:
"I think the perception of what regulations
will do is driving them all crazy, because they're feeling it. Within
the last two years, the changes have been such that you're seeing not only
that movement--if they stay, wives out working, I mean, I've never seen
this large a population now of wives working than in the 80s. For a wife
and mother--that's all she's known, to have been in the home taking care
of her family and her children--it makes a tremendous impact. Most of them--for
some of them that have some education, well, the jobs that they're finding
are a little better, so that their hours are more regulated. But there
are still stresses, for the people that have menial tasks or menial jobs,
because they're limited in education. Cleaning house, they're going through
hell to make their schedule work, their children's schedule work. Within
the last two years, the impact has been unbelievable."
Many women now work outside the home, and men
who traditionally would spend most days outside the household at sea or
on the docks find themselves spending more and more time at home.
Limitations on days at sea, increasing operating, repair and insurance
costs make this necessary.
Recent
immigrants from Southeast Asia and Latin America are mostly employed as
laborers in the processing of sea urchins. They commute from outside
areas to work, and by not participating in social or religious organizations,
they are not considered permanent residents.
Of the 28,000 residents in Gloucester in 1993,
15,800 residents were 16 years and over and working in the labor force.
The rounded figures by category of employment are given in Table
9.
As in Portland, the fishing associations tend
to form around gear types. Real and perceived gear conflicts have
made it difficult for fishing organizations in Gloucester to cooperate
with each other. The oldest fishing association in Gloucester is the Gloucester
Fishermen's Wives Association (GFWA). It was founded in 1969 to promote
the Gloucester and New England fishing industry as well as improve the
quality of life of active and retired fishers and their families. Most
members of the GFWA are associated with the offshore dragger fleet. The
GFWA consists of 125 members representing both captains and crew members.
Past and ongoing activities of the GFWA include:
lobbied for enactment of the Magnuson Fisheries
Conservation and Management Act and for the recent re-authorization of
the act;
worked with the Fishermen's Family Practice Assistance
and Retraining Center to help fishers who elect to pursue other occupational
roles or who are looking at ways to decrease their impact on particular
fishery resources by diversifying their fishing related activities;
lobbied for the ban on oil drilling in the Georges
Bank;
lobbied to establish the Stellwagen Bank Marine
Sanctuary and continue to work with conservation organizations and government
agencies to protect the sanctuary;
published a seafood cookbook, A Taste of Gloucester,
that promotes underutilized fish species with the aim of taking pressure
off traditional stocks (over 90,000 copies sold);
opposed ocean dumping of toxic wastes;
sponsored international exchange programs with
fishing families; and
sponsored educational programs to promote lesser
known fish for food consumption, develop a greater understanding of the
local marine ecosystem, and connect schools with jobs through mentoring
programs.
A significant recent activity of the GFWA has
been the promotion of the Massachusetts Fishermen's Partnership (MFP).
This partnership has as a primary purpose the forging of alliances
between fishers of all gear and geographical sectors for the purpose of
conserving and sustaining fishing communities and the marine resources
they rely upon. An important issue currently being addressed by the partnership
is the development of a comprehensive heath care plan for fishers. Caritas
Christi is a Catholic health organization that can develop a health care
plan for fishers and their families. As noted in the MFP meeting minutes
(4/26.96):
"Caritas Christi was approached last summer
by Cardinal Law and Senator Kennedy's office to "fashion a brand new
health plan" for the fishermen of Massachusetts. Kennedy secured an
EDA grant to fund the project. David Bergeron, Jim Kendall and other
MFP participants have already spent a considerable amount of time assisting
in the development of a survey which is being conducted by Health Care
for All. The survey was sent out in the spring and early summer of 1996
and responses provide information in four broad categories: (1) current
health status, (2) present care providers, (3) how people pay now, (4)
people's interests in the plan" (MFP 1996:2).
The survey, designed with fishing community input,
was sent out to 934 individuals, with 485 surveys returned. The
questionnaire was designed with a cultural understanding of Massachusetts
fishers, their families and communities. Aggregated results of the survey
are available and will be incorporated into a phase-II (SIA) study of the
New England MGF.
The Gloucester Fisheries Commission was established
in the 1950s to organize the fishing industry. It is the only municipal
fisheries commission in the state, and advises the mayor and city council
on measures for promotion and protection of the Gloucester fishing industry.
Members of the commission include the Chamber of Commerce, the Fish Pier
Advisory Board and four members at-large. Members are appointed by the
Mayor and confirmed by the City Council.
The Cape Ann Vessel Association represented the
larger mobile gear vessels in Gloucester until it broke up several years
ago (David Bergeron, personal communication). The association, formerly
including 68 vessels, leveraged an insurance program for members which
provided an economic incentive to belong, but insurers were able to offer
the program to non-members which removed this incentive. The association
continues today with just a handful of vessels.
The Cape Ann Gillnetters Association represents
most of the gillnetters in the community. The association represents
34 boats, with each boat averaging 2 to 3 crew. Of late, the primary concern
of the organization has been fighting the area restrictions imposed under
the newly authorized Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA).
The Gloucester Fisheries Association represents
land-based operations in the fisheries. It includes dealers and
processors.
The Gloucester Inshore Fisheries Association represents
the inshore (small mesh) draggers. There are 10 small draggers operating
as day boats, and they fish from March to November for whiting (silver
hake). The rest of the year they otter trawl for shrimp using a fin-fish
excluder device known as the Nordmore grate. These small scale fishers
operate a coop on Fishermen's Wharf.
Among the important questions regarding the future
of groundfishing in Gloucester and throughout New England is the extent
to which the fleet is reproducing itself. Are fishers being replaced
by their sons and nephews? Are they being displaced by new groups of immigrants
based on alternative organizational structures? Is vertical integration
within fisheries occurring, with the processing sector deploying its own
fleets? These are questions concerning the future of the fleet and its
ability to generate incomes that will be invested in Gloucester economy
as they have in the past.
Unfortunately, we read in the youth of Gloucester
a reluctance to enter the fishery. A key informant who taught high
school in Gloucester for many years noted that, in 1974, a good 75 percent
of those in biology classes had some ties to a fishing boat or the industry.
Discussions of fishery biology and the industry were integrated into classroom
lectures. In 1992-93 when he retired from classroom duty, virtually no
students had ties (or admitted having ties) to the industry. Besides the
decline in participation, there is now a certain shame factor associated
with being in the fishery that can account for avoiding association with
the industry by youth. This is due to a public perception in the media
and at the managerial level that fishers have destroyed the resources (they
are "fish killers"), and that it is no longer an economically
(or socially) viable manner of making a living.
Another
indicator of the downturn in the fishery economy is the loss of dockside
and processing work for students. Ten years ago, students could
get double shifts at local processing plants, and there are numerous cases
of students financing their college educations with money made processing
fish (e.g., the present mayor of Gloucester did this). Other students less
skilled in the classroom might end up dropping out and taking a job as
deckhands. They could earn a lot of money this way, but curtailed their
education thus limiting future job mobility. Now, all students are encouraged
to stay in school because there are no jobs available for them in the local
community outside of minimum wage opportunities. This has also hurt families
lacking the resources to send academically gifted sons and daughters to
college. Such youth no longer have the opportunity to earn college funding
through fish processing.
Infrastructures related to fishing have also faced a severe decline in recent years: "There has been a real decline in the businesses dependent on the fishing industry--a wide number of fishermen, boat suppliers, boats and other processors--those really dependent on the business of the fleet--are hurting (at least the ones that are still in business)."
--Executive Director, Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce
Repair
shops and equipment once regularly available now must be sought in New
Bedford, Boston, or elsewhere. However, the Chamber of Commerce
reports that, overall, the health of the business community in Gloucester
outside the fishing sector is improving. This represents the shift from
a primary economy dependent on fishing to a mixed economy of high tech,
tourism, and light industry.
An important issue for management is the willingness
of fishers to innovate in adapting to new regulations. As in Maine,
where fishers have moved into shrimp, scallops, urchins, and other fisheries,
attempts have been made in Gloucester to innovate and change in response
to Amendment # 7 by shifting effort away from groundfish towards other
underutilized midwater and bottom species. For example, some draggers converted
their gear for herring fishing in the hope of making it in this new fishery.
Herring stocks are very abundant, but the market is undeveloped and current
herring fishers are uneasy about new entrants into a fishery they have
long dominated. Nevertheless, Gloucester fishers have converted their vessels
for herring at a cost of $135,000. However, they were unsuccessful at marketing
the catch and had to give up and absorb the loss. Fisher are also investigating
other species which are either underutilized or have not been part of the
traditional fisheries of Gloucester. For example, draggers are participating
in a fishery for dogfish off of Cape May, and for squid off of Rhode Island.
Others are increasing their fishing pressures on monkfish, whose livers
are highly valued, and investing in fish traps to harvest eels. Pessimism
runs high, however, that any innovations can work. As one key informant
responded: "No innovations are seen as adequate to save the community
from Amendment # 7."
Overall, the ability to shift to other species
and gear is limited by the capital investment in the fishing operation.
The larger vessels characterizing the Gloucester fleet are often saddled
with debt, tied to home mortgages, and too specialized to rig with other
gears without further debt. This ability is also limited by the financial
ties of the crew to the vessel. A family (or families) that have their
homes mortgaged to a vessel cannot easily abandon that vessel to pursue
another option:
"Don't forget, you build a fishing vessels,
most of these guys have pledged their lives in the form of a mortgage on
their real estate, their life savings, all are sunk into that vessel. And
when they come home a broker--You know what I mean by a broker? They don't
make any money. When they don't make any money, or, in fact, lose money--those
obligations continue. If you don't make your bank payments, and they have
a lot of them that haven't been making their bank payments, then desperation
sets in."
Despite these difficulties, willingness to adapt
and innovate is seen in the Gloucester Herring Corporation. This
corporation consists of a group of processors and nine vessels. They are
preparing to process food quality herring for export in ice blocks. In
order to break into the market, they would have to accept a price ($.04/pound)
below break even value ($.06/pound). If they can create a demand for their
product, the price should rise. The subsidy comes from a FIG grant*.
*Note by Clay: Fishing Industry Grants (FIG) were part of
the post Amendment # 7 federal economic assistance package ($30 million
from the Dept. of Commerce) that also included the Fishing Family Assistance
Centers.
Some lack of cooperation ensued in the start up.
The processors proposed to let any vessel provide herring. This
contradicted the original vessel owners' understandings, causing six of
fifteen original owners to sever ties with the corporation. Only nine vessels
are still participating in the program. Objections from the cooperating
vessels have re-instituted the original accord. However, a key respondent
estimated that to be successful a total of 20 vessels would need to participate.
Because of the breakdown in communication, it is hard to get boats to commit
to ventures. Increasing competition and a pervasive lack of trust make
cooperation difficult.
In addition to adjusting to change within commercial
fishing, the prospect exists for fishers to move into nonfishing occupations
or marine related jobs either for short-term, casual employment during
down turns in groundfishing or as a viable career alternative. Retraining
centers established throughout the Northeast, administered by state Departments
of Labor, have been operating on the assumption that adjustment to the
current crisis would include job training.
One way to measure this commitment is to examine
the impact of the retraining centers, and the outcomes of retraining efforts
and perceptions of professionals staffing the family practice centers.
The necessity and response to retraining is an indicator of the health
of a fishery community, and reveals social and cultural characteristics,
conditions, and problems of those seeking assistance.
With 95 enrolled, the retraining program has been
as successful as possible in Gloucester due to strong leadership in the
center and the pairing of center activities with the Gloucester Fishermen's
Wives Association (GFWA), but the program suffers from several problems
nevertheless. The GFWA is an organization with 26 years working
experience with the fishing community (see B4). Despite the best efforts
of the GFWA leadership in assisting the retraining process, there are still
difficult problems to overcome. The major problem, of course, is that people
do not want to give up fishing as a way of life, which does not compare
to the job opportunities presented by the retraining centers.
The majority of fishers in Gloucester see little
opportunity for them with retraining. Despite this, the center has
enrolled 95 individuals in the program, of whom 14 have new jobs. Of the
remainder, 31 have completed training, 24 are in school, and the others
in process. Many of these have been fishers' wives. Despite this limited
success, there are many problems identified by center administrators in
the design of the program. Professionals from retraining centers in both
Gloucester and on Cape Cod were interviewed on their experiences with retraining
fishers and their family members. Fishers who came to retrain were faced
with a variety of difficulties in coping with a change in lifestyle. Characteristics
noted in counseling for retraining included:
Independent natures
Not able to work under another individual's direction
Difficulty in relating to support service personnel
who come with a different worldview
Linguistic and cultural barriers to retraining
Infighting between fishing groups (gear types)
hinders group cooperation
Older fishers fear age discrimination
Unfamiliarity with set (clocked) schedules within
a workplace
Older fishers (40-45 years of age--averaging a
fifth grade education) do not want to participate in retraining--they see
this as a giving up--as losing face in front of their peers
In an interview with a training center director
and counselor from Hyannis, Massachusetts, fishers were noted to communicate
the following:
They are very angry with the government for their
situations.
They may lack trust or confidence that the retraining
centers will not negatively affect them like the government has done with
the proposed Amendment # 7.
They are very frustrated and under stress from
not being able to provide for their families as they had done on the past.
Older fishers express feeling that there is no
hope for them getting a job and that they cannot be retrained for anything
that fits their capabilities.
They express an unwillingness to work for $8 to
$10 an hour when they could earn so much more fishing in a short period
of time.
Other characteristics noted among fishers coming in for retraining are
a desire to work outdoors, a great interest in their local environment,
and putting to use their electrical and mechanical skills.
In general, fishers' wives are more likely to
come through and get retraining than fishers themselves, often to give
the household the means to maintain boats. Yet the overall feeling
about the retraining centers are that the $30 million provided as assistance
to the fishing industry by the Department of Commerce has not been used
well, that there needs to be a mentor capacity for those coming into the
community, and that many of the organizations are not culturally sensitive
to the community needs. Because of these factors, future training programs
could use the help of NGOs who have worked closely with the communities.
Poor communication between fishers and outside
observers is a critical issue for fishing communities in New England. This
can vary depending on the degree of representation that is perceived in
the council. Unfortunately, outsiders "can include those not fishing
in the community, the public media, and fishery managers." The definition
of individuals as community insiders versus outsiders has ramifications
on the effectiveness of the management process. This is not improved by
the underutilization of community social and cultural information in decision
making. Earlier social-cultural studies and recommendations on the groundfish
fishery (Poggie and Pollnac 1979) have had no significant impact on the
management process, even though this research identified some of the same
problems facing fishing communities and management almost twenty years
later.
Defining managers as outsiders has arisen from
the lack of input everyday fishermen appear to have in the decision making
process. Fishers' associations prepared alternatives to specifics
on the Amendment # 5, yet they claim that their input was ignored. Others
claim that when issues/problems in the fishery are brought to the attention
of managers, the information is often turned against fishers. A key respondents
opinion is: "Information is taken and solutions imposed instead
of developing a dialogue where fishers can collaborate to find solutions
that are more effective biologically and better for community participants."
These problems have led to a decline in participation in the public hearing
process. There seem to be two basic concerns from the fishers' perspective
(1) lack of effective communication between managers and fishing communities,
and (2) the perception that when information is effectively communicated,
it is invariably used in a manner that is detrimental to those communicating
it.
This can be seen in the degree of participation
in Amendment # 5 as opposed to Amendment # 7. A key respondent said
that during the Amendment # 5 hearings, there was a great deal of active
participation among fishing community members, including alternative plans
that contained strong conservation recommendations. Yet, when Amendment
# 7 was discussed and passed, virtually no one attended the public hearings.
Given the severity of cuts in fishing days proposed in Amendment #7, this
is surprising until one considers the perception among fishers that their
inputs on Amendment # 5 had been virtually ignored. Why repeat a futile
experience? They perceived that no modification or compromise on the part
of management indicated their views were ever seriously considered.
These behaviors are interpreted in the popular
media as further indications that the MFG is dead or dying, interpretations
which have material consequences for those attempting to remain in the
industry. Fishers reported that banks are "getting out of the
fishing business," not only refusing to extend new loans but calling
in loans on fishers' homes regardless of their past standing. Recall the
similar comments of a Portland fisher, quoted above, whose traditional
supermarket would not extend credit to another vessel.
We have noted in several places in this report
that dependence on groundfishing in Gloucester, as well as other ports,
has both material and symbolic dimensions. Cultural and social distinctions
divide fishing families from the rest of the community, making the fishing
community to some extent insular. Ethnically, most ground fishers are Sicilian/Italian,
and there remain strong connections with Italian communities of origin.
The fishing families are aligned to a local church and have been a largely
closed population since the founding of the community in 1623. The Catholic
parish was founded in 1849 and Catholic fisher arrived shortly after. Protestant
fishers declined in numbers over the 16th century while Roman Catholics
now comprise the great majority. These indicators of social and cultural
distinctiveness--of insularity--have made the fishing community less open
to outside intervention in the form of government regulation than fishers
who are less distinct from nonfishers such as fishery biologists and managers.
Thus religious as well as traditional values make the community more resistant
to change than what would be designated the Yankee ports of the Cape (Chatham)
and Maine. While fishers are not encouraging their sons to enter the fishery,
they resist leaving it themselves. Unfortunately, several developments
external to and within the industry, noted above and below, have made staying
in the industry difficult.
Issues of concern in the aftermath of Amendment
# 5 include the following needs assessment from conversations with those
working the docks, attending meetings, and coming to the Fishing Family
Assistance Center:
1. Those who want to exit the fishing
industry need support for their families while they are training.
2. Wives who never worked need counseling
and training. Many wives do have some business experience, however, in
that the traditional norm was for many wives to manage the shore side fishing
accounts.
3. Many wives need child care assistance.
4. Many need travel assistance to
travel out of town for schooling or retraining.
5. Because a large percentage do
not speak English, ESL (English as a Second Language) classes are needed
which are offered at a time that is appropriate to their home schedules.
6. Many need loans to stay in the
business or to get into other types of fishing.
7. Many need assistance and training
in reorganizing their businesses and preparing business plans.
8. Many need assistance and training
in grant writing.
9. Many need assistance in finding
immediate employment.
10. Many of those who work as deck
hands are severely underemployed and are experiencing cuts in their income
as fishing trips decrease and deck hand shares payed by boat owners shrink
to cover the increasing costs of vessel operation.
11. Many need legal assistance for
loans, bankruptcy, home protection, Homestead Act, licenses, permits, relocation,
violation negotiations, fishing vessel insurance, interpreting regulations,
other.
12. Many have no medical insurance,
or drop their insurance as they try to cut fishing vessel operating costs.
13. Many are unable to leave the
fishing industry because they have fishing vessels with big mortgages and
cannot leave them tied to the dock inactive.
14. There are widespread psychosocial
impacts in the fishing sector among fishers and their families. They need
assistance in dealing with the high degree of uncertainty and stress created
by the changes in regulations and by the perceived lack of communication
with those making the changes.
15. Many are unable to attend meetings
to keep up with rapidly changing and unexpected fishing regulations, having
difficulty predicting how regulations will affect their current and future
fishing strategies.
The decline in the economic viability of the larger
fishing vessels has put incredible pressure on the ability of fishers to
make a living. The lack of security from fishing has steadily increased
as the management regime becomes more restrictive, fish of certain target
species are scarcer, and operating costs continue to rise. One outcome
of this has been reduction in crew size to reduce labor costs. There has
been a drop in the number of crew employed on the vessels from a high of
10-11 to now just 2-6. Some larger vessels are now operating inshore with
skeleton crews of just two to four (e.g., a father-son operation). They
cannot afford to work with a larger crew, nor can they afford to fish offshore
for any extended periods.
Only 23 vessels over 70 feet which used to work
Georges Bank are now fishing in the Gulf of Maine. This has increased
the individual crew members' burdens of watch time and other activities
while decreasing available employment in the fishery. Thus, the fishery
is experiencing an ongoing decrease in the social yield of the fishery,
or the number of individuals that find employment and income in the fishery
on a sustained basis.
Reduction in crew size is accompanied by longer
trips at sea (10-12 days) compared with 7-8 days several years ago, increasing
the work load and stress on remaining crew. It also makes it much
more difficult to find good crew for vessels that are short handed. Reduced
crew means there is also less manpower to deal with emergencies at sea.
This puts the remaining crew at greater risk. The loss of days at sea which
accompanies putting into port in bad weather* pressures captains to stay
out even during threatening weather, putting the vessel at greater risk.
*Note by Clay: Captains could avoid losing days at sea by calling out of groundfishing when putting in and then calling back into groundfishing when leaving port. But they would need to land their catch after calling out of groundfishing and before leaving port again.
Deckhands have arguably borne the brunt of reduced
crew sizes. Traditionally, the share that goes to the boat is half
of the catch profit. To make up for smaller catch and less profit, the
boat share is increased. This cuts into the profit shares of crew. Crew
aboard larger vessels in Gloucester and New Bedford are more like factory
workers than independent fishers in small vessels who own their own means
of production.
Having little control over the means of production,
and being devalued as costs of fishing increase, has a severe impact on
deckhands. They are already at the lower end of the job satisfaction
scale (Poggie and Pollnac 1980). As they are further marginalized, relationships
with captain/owners become strained. Deckhands have no control over the
production process, but in fact are earning less and less as the captain/owners
they work for put more and more of the catch share into covering the operating
expenses of the boat. One estimate of a deckhand's earnings was that his
$300 share for a recent trip, considering days at sea are 24-hour full
time* activities, amounted to $.40/hour.
*Note by Clay: The standard work day at sea is at least 12
hours long, usually in two shifts of 6 or so hours each. As number of crew
decline, number of hours per crew increase.
Based on US census data, the annual medium family
income for Gloucester is $32,690, for non-family $17,258, and per capita
$16,044. Data from the Doeringer, et al. study of 1986 suggested
that captains and crew were making incomes higher or comparable to this
over ten years ago ($30,000 to $35,000 for crew and $50,000 to $55,000
for captains) and the amounts spent by offshore vessels to cover trip expenses
suggest that, even in decline, the fleet continues to generate substantial
incomes for the port of Gloucester.
Table 10 documents the contrast in expense between
vessels of different sizes.
As vessel size increases, there is a considerable
increase in operating expenditures, such that the average total expenditures
for a larger vessel operating with a normal complement of five crew is
approximately six times that of the smaller day boats. Increased
costs come from greater number of days at sea, which translates into higher
labor, fuel, ice, and food expenditures. Risk is thus considerably greater
for larger than smaller vessels. If a vessel comes in with a "broker"
(makes no money) then the subsequent economic loss is also greater. Reduction
in days at sea thus puts the 
greatest
pressure on the largest boats, for fewer total trips makes it more difficult
to cover expenses for the higher relative costs ( in comparison to smaller
vessels) of trips that are "brokers."
Commercial fishers in Gloucester have developed
fishermen's family log books and decades of fishing experience provide
them with a sound basis for tracking changing conditions of the fishing
grounds and stocks. For example, one fisher perceived that besides
overfishing, the scarcity of certain fish stocks could be related to changes
in the water temperature in traditional fishing:
"The fish have been moving north and east
away from us as the water temperatures have increased. Ten years ago. I
couldn't put my hand in the water that washed up on deck without it freezing
up from the cold. Today, I can get my hand wet and it doesn't even
bother me. The bay in the harbor always iced up in the winter time, but
it hasn't done this for about seven years."
Folk
knowledge of fishing in Gloucester is based on hundreds if not thousands
of collective person years of fishing. The use of this folk knowledge
is critical to fishing success. Many fishers try to implement practices
that are conservation oriented. This does not mean that there are others
who ignore conservation practices. Fishing in restricted areas, using net
liners, and fishing out of season are not unknown. The increase in severity
of fines is partly a reflection of the need for strong enforcement.
The Gloucester fishing community has consistently
supported a variety of measures to conserve stocks. Their role has
not been recognized by the public. Recent specific issues and actions expressed
by key respondents include:
The fishing community, itself, has proposed a
conservation plan for the MGF but this went unrecognized in the Amendment
# 5 and # 7 hearings.
Some stocks are being depleted; but there may
be larger stocks of other fish. Markets need to be developed for these
so-called under-utilized species through fishers and processors working
together.
This community needs help to accomplish development
of new markets.
Fishers felt they are not being heard or taken
seriously. This point has made numerous times; but what is the case is
there is an imbalance of interests regarding fish and people and how the
industry is seen.
Fishers express deep concern over the wasting of fish due to trip quotas on certain species, such as the 500 pound/trip* limit on haddock.
* Note by Clay: The 1997 trip limit
is 1,000 lbs.
In "A City of Gloucester's Fishery Management
Plan" (1995), we have an example of a folk management alternative.
Within this plan are specific measures that contradict the stereotype
of fishers and fishing communities as being primarily motivated by greed.
For example, the following conservation measures are part of the city plan:
-opposition to pair trawling on groundfish to allow for stock recovery*;
* Note by Clay: Pair trawling has been banned since Amendment # 5.
-proposal to study roller gear to determine a
height limit of rollers to protect specific rocky ground areas;
-vessels to give up three 20 day periods a year to reduce days at sea to occur between the peak groundfish spawning periods*;
*Note by Clay: This is implemented for all limited access
vessels (including hook vessels) in Amendment # 7, and was implemented
for some vessels under Amendment # 5.
-hook vessels with more than 4,500 hooks should
be bound by the three 20-day program;
-support of the six-inch mesh size*
throughout the range of the Council's jurisdiction, not just in restricted
areas such as marine sanctuaries; and
* Note by Clay: Amendments #
5 and # 7 require six inch square or five and a half inch diamond mesh
through most of the range.
-gradual withdrawal of fishers from the haddock
fisheries until such time that stock increases occur.
Scarcity of fish, gentrification of the community,
and recent regulations are resulting in significant changes in the social
conditions for the fishing households and families in Gloucester. These
changes area seen both on and off the water, in the household environment,
and in the social and occupational networks of the community.
On the water, there is an increase in competition
and loss of economic viability, particularly for the larger vessels and
their crew. One symptom of this is the breakdown of shared information
on the location of fishing grounds, expressed as "chatter" (on
the water conversation by marine radio). Chatter allows a fisher to share
information on the location of good fishing strikes with others, with the
hope of benefitting by reciprocal exchange of information in the future
(Poggie and Pollnac 1980).
Breakdown in chatter has been attributed in part
to the fishing block*
(days at sea) regulations:
"People don't talk to each other anymore on the water. Everyone is so frustrated and afraid. Nobody is helping anybody out on the water anymore. This is because the days at sea program. If I have to come in, and you go out on your block, then if you know where I was fishing, you'll get my fish. So everyone is keeping to themselves."
--Community Leader, Local Fishing Association
* Note by Clay: Under Amendment # 5, those choosing the fleet
(rather than the individual) allocation of days at sea met the limits by
staying in port for a period related the length of the trip they had just
finished. Under Amendment # 7 the fleet allocation is a set number of days,
and these "layover" blocks are no longer required -- though all
limited access vessels take their 20-day blocks out during spawning season.
One possible outcome is that overall landings
could be decreased even more by the lack of information sharing.
As individual boats don't report concentrations of fish to others, the
overall landing figures may decline, giving the impression based on landings
that in comparison to previous yearly catch statistics scarce fish resources
seem to be even scarcer than they really are. Thus, breakdowns in communication
between fishers on the water has caused an image of stocks depressed further
than they may be, as fishers who find fish do not pass this information
along to other fishers. A consequence is an increase in "brokers."
A broker is a fishing trip in which little or no fish is caught and the
outcome is a loss in revenue to the boat, captain and crew.
Mistrust among fishers is exacerbated as conflicts
occur between gear types. In Gloucester, fishers report that gear
conflicts increased in intensity about ten years ago. Up until then, there
were few gillnetters and longliners fishing out of Gloucester. Since WWII,
mid-water and bottom dragging had been the primary fishing technology.
With rock hoppers and other technological modifications, draggers were
able to get into grounds where they were previously excluded. Hard bottom
is prime fishing area for gillnetting and longlining, because fish tend
to aggregate over these food rich areas. Conflicts arose as draggers, gillnetters
and longliners all competed for the same hard-bottom fishing areas. Part
of this stemmed from the interaction between relative newcomers to the
fishery and those who had come just before WWII.
The competition between the two groups also lead
to different perspectives on conservation. It was claimed that older
established fishers were more concerned with conservation issues than newcomers
who were seen as going all out to catch as many fish as possible, including
the use of illegal net liners to increase the overall catch at the expense
of smaller fish and other non-targeted bycatch species. This stereotyping
aside, there was some conflict between the newer fishing families and established
families. This lead to conflict, and was exacerbated by a perception of
lack of representation of all groups of fishers on the New England Fishery
Management Council.
The primary complaint by key respondents is that
council members don't understand the impact of the regulations they create,
and this creates confusion and resentment in the fishing community. This
resentment can lead to non-compliance with regulations that are seen as
unfair. This has not substantially changed since the 1980s (Poggie and
Pollnac 1980). If anything, competition within the community has gotten
worse, and divisions between gear groups exacerbated, by the present system.
"Amendment # 5 is turning us all in to
criminals," said one key respondent, commenting on the pressures
of conforming to livelihood threatening management measures. Related
to perceptions such as this is the public's perception that the fishing
collapse is their fault, an image promulgated in part by the popular media
that portrays today's commercial fishers as greedy "fish killers"
and primarily responsible for fish scarcity. A presumption of criminality
follows, suggesting that all fishers are guilty, by association, of overfishing.
Part
of the regulatory response to overfishing and scarcity has been the use
of the call-in system. This is a means to track vessels as they
leave and return to port. Interviewed fishers noted this, too, made them
feel like criminals, commonly likening the system to "big brother"
watching them: "When I come home from fishing, I can't kiss my
wife until after I kiss the telephone" [calling NMFS].
As fishing becomes more difficult, there is an
associated decline in job satisfaction, which may lead to mental health
problems. The Department of Health, Education and Welfare (now Health
and Human Services) noted in a 1973 summary of research by the Survey Research
Center at the University of Michigan that the absence of job satisfaction
is related to psychosomatic illnesses, anxiety, low self esteem, worry,
tension, and impaired interpersonal relationships. Increased stress due
to the crisis was noted by every key respondent interviewed in Gloucester,
and resulted in occasional emotional expressions of stress during the interview.
Stress has been attributed by key respondents to strong sentiments of uncertainty
and helplessness, particularly since Amendment # 5. Other notable impacts
include domestic strife, violence, and avoidance behavior:
"We used to go out to the club and to
go to church, but I don't do that anymore. What is the point? There
is nothing good to talk about. We just go from the boat to the house. Sometimes
we go to church, but it's usually only on Easter or other holidays."
As fishers and their families withdraw from each
other, you would anticipate a breakdown of the social networks they participate
in. Social networks are partly represented by community associations.
For example, the Son of Italy is an association comprised almost entirely
of fishers and their families. One way to measure this breakdown is in
the level of participation in associations. The following table shows the
number of registered members in four community associations in Gloucester
over the last six years. The Moose and Elks associations are not composed
of fisher families, but rather represent subpopulations involved in tourism,
local light industry and the bedroom community sector. They have increased
or remained stable for the shown period. By contrast, the Sons of Italy
and Societa Siciliana show a dramatic decline in membership, from a high
in 1991 of 304 to a low of 89 (a 70% decline) for Sons of Italy and from
200 (1991) to 79 (1995) (a 60% decline).
Gelles (1974) and Strauss (1979) report a clear
relationship between job satisfaction, family violence, and other social
problems. An M.D. in Gloucester with decades of history treating
local fisher families, processors, and managers noted a dramatic increase
in stress related illness and disease over the last three years. This includes
gastrointestinal illnesses, stroke, heart attacks, and hypertension. He
attributed this directly to the impact of Amendment # and related changes.
Heart disease and other illnesses which impact a person's social relationships
have also been related to work dissatisfaction (HEW 1973):
"One fisherman came into the office and was all shook up because he had to throw away a lot of haddock. He went out fishing and caught 2,000 of haddock in his first tow. He had to throw 1,500 ponds overboard. So he moved his boat and reset the net. He got 10,000 pounds, and all of it went overboard. So he moved his boat again, and this time he got 20,000 pounds. Well, for these fishermen, waste is a sin. So to throw all these fish overboard was really hard. This guy was so upset about it when he came in that he started having chests pains right in the office while he was talking about it."
--President, Local Fishing Association
A major source of conflict also comes from the
decrease in catch share payments made to crew on draggers. As the
costs of fuel and other operating expenses have increased, and allowable
days at sea decreased captain/owners are partly trying to make do by decreasing
the pay of deck hands. This has put tremendous stress on deckhands, who
as a group are the most poorly educated and least occupationally flexible
population in Gloucester.
Local newspaper reports on boat buy backs, the collapse of the groundfish stock, and other related issues have created several problems for fishers, both material and psychological in nature. By taking management agency actions and reifying them into "the industry is dead," they provide no room for recovery and creates a community environment that disfavors those struggling to adapt to the changing fishery environment.
This is exacerbated by the ongoing process of
gentrification, a process commonplace in many contemporary coastal communities
(Gale 1992). The composition of the community is changing as more
non-fishers move into the community. This creates a change in the way the
industry is understood, and is a source of conflict between new interests
in development and transformation and old interests in fishing tradition
and sustainability.
A public official pointed out that there are now
four major components to the Gloucester economy, and that they are all
important to maintaining the economic health and social character of the
community. These are: fishing, tourism, light industry, and folk
art. In fact, the largest single employer in the community is Varian Ion
Implant Systems, headquartered in Palo Alto, California, which supports
1,400 jobs in Gloucester. However, Varian has just gone through two layoffs,
and may eventually be reduced to 450 employees.
Light industry is not as intimately linked to
fishing as are tourism and the art colony. The fact that Gloucester
remains a working fishing port is part of what attracts both artist and
tourists to the community: "there's really serious interrelationships
between the fishing industry and those other components that makes the
whole thing tick. If you go to a community like Salem, which is
a fine community, don't get me wrong. You go there to see maritime heritage
in the past. They come here , tourists, to visit, and you see it still
alive; it's a way of life to be witnessed the heritage and interrelationships
between the two are quite substantial."
The ground fishers and families of Gloucester
are experiencing a great deal of stress and economic hardship due to recent
and proposed regulation on the fishery. Increased competition and
conflict, loss of days at sea, and increasing operating costs are all contributing
to the crisis. Large scale draggers are having the most difficult time,
and deckhands on these draggers are the most vulnerable to the decreasing
economic and social viability of the fishery. Gillnetters and longliners
are also suffering from new marine mammal regulations which curtail the
areas they can fish. In comparison to Portland, the present and potential
loss of social capital in Gloucester is greater, and the flexibility to
respond to severe cuts in days at sea is more limited.
Through organizations such as the Gloucester Fishermen's
Wives, concerted efforts are being made to constructively adapt to the
fishing crisis presented by Amendments # 5 and # 7. Representatives
of the fishing community are writing grants for federal assistance, promoting
underutilized species, and working with state and regional religious, service
and state organizations to diversify the options available to those in
the fishing industry.
As of yet, attempts to adapt to the new regulatory climate have been difficult, but should improve with time if resources are made available. Switching to underutilized species such as herring carries high costs, and the difficulties of breaking into new markets also limit the success of this venture. The proposed introduction of a local fish auction is a positive development, and new initiatives to buy back vessels could somewhat alleviate the situation. However, the overall assessment is that many fisher households are at or near social and economic collapse. Efforts are being made and could be supported by management which diversify the fishery through retraining programs, co-management of resources, and other initiatives to mitigate the crisis situation of this population.