SEABROOK, New Hampshire — In mid-December, Les Eastman sent out one of his fishing charter party boat full of tourists who were in the region to fish in New Hampshire’s ocean waters. But unless federal fishing regulations change soon, this coastal New England recreational tradition might not continue.
“When I looked out in the parking lot, most of the cars had license plates from New York and New Jersey,” Eastman said. “That means they stayed in local hotels, ate at local restaurants, shopped, got gas. Those are all tourist dollars that will be lost if we can’t take people out fishing in the party boats because of these closures.”
Eastman’s comments relate to the emergency measures imposed by federal fishing authorities that closed inshore fishing sectors in the Gulf of Maine to any type of cod fishing — recreational and commercial.
Hampton-Seabrook harbor is busy every spring, summer and fall with the many charter fishing boat businesses that bring amateur fishermen to the area. They present an opportunity for those without vessels to head out to sea to try their hands at landing New England cold water species such as cod, haddock and pollack, along with bass, bluefish and mackerel.
But what most local avid amateur fishermen don’t realize is that the emergency measures apply to them as well. Those who buy a saltwater fishing license in New Hampshire and Massachusetts in order to spend a day on the water also are prevented from hauling in the usually welcomed cod.
Exactly how federal regulators intend to enforce such a sweeping edict is still unknown, according to Peter Kendall, manager of Seabrook’s Yankee Fisherman’s Cooperative.
The emergency measures announced in November are in effect until at least until May 1, but local fishing officials hope federal authorities will accept their proposed Framework 53, which would alter them. The proposal would allow party boats to continue taking people fishing anywhere in the Gulf of Maine, under the requirement that any cod caught would released immediately.
Commercial fishermen would also be allowed to fish in the Gulf of Maine for groundfish species other than cod, such as haddock and pollack, under Framework 53.
For decades, the increasingly restrictive fishing regulations handed down from Washington, D.C., were primarily a burden to small boat commercial fishermen in the inshore fleets found along coastal New Hampshire, Maine and parts of Massachusetts.
Regulators fearing overfishing and depleting stocks in the national waters initially curtailed the number of days at sea commercial fishermen were allowed, then limited the number of pounds of fish they could haul in. It drastically reduced fishermen’s incomes, put many out of business and continues to deplete one of the oldest industries in New England.
But Eastman sees the new regulations as having a far-reaching effect in the Granite State, which has many businesses and tens of thousands of employees who earn livings from tourists every year, especially along the seacoast.
Veteran Hampton fisherman and Yankee Co-op member David Goethel sees what’s happening as part of the pervasive economic fallout from decades of what he considers overregulation to fishermen, as well as any who earn their livings supporting the fishing trade in any way.
“People lose their jobs,” Goethal told New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan, a Democrat, during her recent visit. “When [captains] can’t fish, they can’t pay their loans, their crews are laid off. I know guys who are sleeping in their cars. It’s a human tragedy; it really is.”
Even consumers could see the impact, for by curtailing the supply of fish caught and sold in the region, prices could be going up for those who want to eat the freshest fish, locally caught.
Yankee Fisherman’s Cooperative lands the fish their members catch, then sell them to large in-state and out-of-state buyers. Some is also processed at the Co-op for consumers, and sold at the Co-op’s retail fish market on Route 1A in Seabrook, New Hampshire.
According to Kendall, the severe reduction in the supply of cod and other species affected by the emergency measure closures will alter people’s choices at local grocery stores and fish markets.
“Prices will go up, but they’ll only go up so far,” Kendall said. “Then [wholesalers and retailers] will bring fish in from somewhere else. Norway, maybe; they catch a lot of cod in Norway.”
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC