Mandatory scrapping of boats is central to buyout proposal

WASHINGTON — Trying to reduce fishing off New England as much as possible with limited money, a federal agency has suggested that fishermen who want to take part in a boat buyout pilot program be forced to scrap their vessels.

A draft of the U.S. Commerce Department plan calls for restricting the program to larger, full-time boats that go after groundfish, including cod, haddock, pollock, flounder, gray sole, American plaice, white hake and redfish.

Details of the proposal were presented Wednesday to fishermen in Gloucester and New Bedford, Mass., and officials were expected to make a similar presentation Thursday in Portland, Maine.

The department plans to use the industry’s feedback to finalize details of the $2 million pilot program, which it wants to start by May 8.

The program is expected to be voluntary. However, vessels that are selected to take part would have to be scrapped, the draft said. Owners would have 15 working days after being picked to withdraw their offers.

Vessel owners would need to “provide proof that the vessel has been scrapped or a signed and notarized contact from a bonafide scrapping company that it (possesses) the vessel and is in the process of scrapping it,” it said.

Federal officials and lawmakers acknowledge that the pilot, in and of itself, will not do much to alleviate the over-fishing that has been blamed for the collapse of cod, haddock and flounder stocks.

The fisheries are so depleted that the Commerce Department has extended, indefinitely, the closure of Georges Bank and waters off southern New England. The emergency closure was first ordered in December.