Out to Sea

It is a bit simplistic to blame federal fisheries regulations for the sinking of the Candy B II, as the boat’s owner did Wednesday. The 46-foot boat was fishing for scallops when it disappeared last week in 200-foot deep water 50 miles southeast of Nantucket. The cause of the boat’s sinking remains a mystery, although some report it was hit by a passing ship and others say it was not seaworthy.

Four crewmen from midcoast Maine were lost at sea. However, the loss of Ralph “Bubba” Boyington, 34, of Waldoboro; Howard “Cappy” Crudell, 38, of Warren; Brandon Feyler, 17, of Union; and Adrian Randall, 25, of Rockland, should remind regulators that more than the health of fish stocks is at stake when they craft new, and likely more stringent, rules.

“The government pushed us into something we didn’t want to do,” Scott Knowlton, the owner of the Candy B II, told the Portland Press Herald. He was forced to use the craft to drag for scallops off the coast of Massachusetts, the Waldoboro fisherman said, because he couldn’t make a living groundfishing.

After fishing in the Gulf of Maine, Alaska and the Great Salt Lake, Mr. Knowlton said he bought the 53-year-old craft in hopes of returning to Maine and fishing for cod, haddock and flounder. A month after purchasing the boat in March 2002, new restrictions aimed at speeding the recovery of dwindling groundfish stocks cut the number of days the Candy B II could spend at sea from 88 to 24. The boat was then limited to eight days a year because it had no record of going to sea in prior years. Forced to file for bankruptcy, Mr. Knowlton said he was forced to take the boat to Massachusetts and turned to scallop dragging.

The sinking of the Candy B II comes as federal and regional regulators are revising fishing rules, known as Amendment 13. A federal court judge ruled in 2001 that the National Marine Fisheries Service was not adequately protecting New England’s groundfish stocks such as cod, haddock and flounder. She ordered the agency to come up with better rules to stop overfishing. The rules are to take effect next May.

To comply with the judge’s order, the New England Fisheries Management Council drafted four possible solutions. One would be to reduce fishing days by as much as 65 percent. Others would lower cod catch limits and require gear changes, develop catch quotas for specific areas based on the number of fish found there or implementing total allowable catch quotas that would shut down areas once the quota is reached.

These options imperil fishermen at the expense of fish, Sen. Olympia Snowe said before the Candy B II incident. “The most stringent rebuilding plan for Amendment 13 only projects, at most, a 13 percent increase in landings in the long run, but in the short run many fishermen and workers in other sectors of the industry tell me they would be driven out of business. That’s not the balance we need,” the senator said. Due to her dissatisfaction with NMFS interpretation of federal fisheries law, Sen. Snowe, chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Oceans, Fisheries and Coast Guard, will hold an oversight hearing on the issue on Wednesday in Washington. Sen. Snowe is joined by Sen. Susan Collins, Reps. Mike Michaud and Tom Allen and fishing groups in calling for more flexibility to safeguard fishermen and their livelihoods.

Finding the right balance, especially given the judge’s order that the rules be made tougher, will be extremely difficult. But if it prevents another tragedy like the sinking of the Candy B II, it will well be worth the effort.