Nor'Easter Spring/Summer 1996

Fish Industry Grants:
Seeking Sustainable Alternatives
In A Time of Reduced Returns

It was a great run, but it's over.

The FIGs program is a component of the $30-million aid package that the Department of Commerce made available in 1994 to assist the Northeast's struggling fishing industry: Fishing effort was being curtailed by Amendment 5 to the Northeast Multi-species Fisheries Management Plan prepared under the Magnuson Fishery Management and Conservation Act. Amendment 5 calls for a 50 percent reduction in fishing mortality in five years. (As Nor'easter goes to press, an even more stringent Amendment 7, which calls for an 80 percent reduction in mortality as soon as possible, is making its way through the approval process.) Of the $30 million, $18 million went to the Economic Development Administration (EDA). The EDA used most of its portion to establish revolving loan funds administered by state and local governments and nonprofit agencies from Maine to New Jersey.

NMFS received $12 million, of which $9 million was designated for grants to fishermen for short-term projects designed to help them develop employment alternatives. Simply put, the goal was "to try to assist the Northeast fisheries by shifting effort away from overexploited stocks," according to Kenneth Beal, assistant division chief of the State, Federal, and Constituent Programs Division of NMFS. Beal is one of several NMFS personnel charged with monitoring the FIGs program, which will run through 1997, and getting out the results of the projects to those who will be able to benefit.

The other $3 million of the NMFS share went to fund the agency's Fisheries Obligation Guarantee program, which guarantees loans to fishermen; to cover the costs of an 18-month outreach program offered through six regional Fishing Family Assistance Centers, an intensive effort mounted in 1994 and 1995 to make sure fishermen and their families were aware of all the assistance available; and to provide oversight for the FIGs program.

FIGs is based on the Saltonstall-Kennedy program, a NMFS-administered effort that awards grants to academic researchers and representatives of the fishing industry in support of efforts to develop new fisheries, aquaculture, more selective fishing gear, and additional markets. In early 1994, the call went out for proposals for the first of two rounds of FIGs grants.

"We wanted to make sure it was the fishermen who were getting the money," Beal explains. Knowing that most fishermen weren't experienced in the proposal process, NMFS held some 50 workshops in the Northeast in 1994 and 1995. Sea Grant also became involved, holding workshops and working one-on-one with fishermen to help them develop their ideas.

"The FIGs process tapped into and encouraged the innovation that comes naturally to fishermen," according to Madeleine Hall-Arber, anthropologist/marine advisor for Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sea Grant. "They are very independent and this gave them a way to adapt their talents and try something else, something that may prove to be sustainable." "I'm very happy with the results of the workshops," Beal reports. "We got many handwritten proposals, ones done by fishermen and their wives over the kitchen table. There were a lot of good ideas and many of them were funded. Some won't work out, but we'll have some wonderful results from others."

NMFS received 441 proposals and funded 63. During the evaluation phase, the agency used a two-step review process. First, each proposal underwent several technical reviews and was ranked on the basis of its approach to the project, the soundness of its design, the qualifications of the investigator(s), the proposed evaluation methods, and its budget. Then, the top third of the proposals was presented to the members of an industry review panel, who voted for the ones they thought would do the best job of accomplishing meaningful goals. NMFS then tabulated the results and determined the winners.

The FIGs projects fall into seven categories, three of which - developing employment alternatives (16 projects), creating new markets (two), enhancing aquaculture (22) - are highlighted in the accompanying sidebars. The four other categories are advancing gear technology (two), improving waste management (four), reducing bycatch (six), and developing fisheries based on underutilized species (11). In the gear technology category, John Williamson, a commercial fisherman from Kennebunk, Maine, is testing computerized jigging machines from Iceland to see if they can be an effective way to catch dogfish, mackerel, and other species. "If he's successful," explains Rollie Barnaby, a marine educator with Maine/New Hampshire Sea Grant, "local fishermen will have a selective, less expensive alternative to the gill net."

As an example of improving waste management, Peter Barbera, a Point Judith, R.I., fish dealer, is working with fish processors, chemical engineers, food scientists, and environmental scientists and engineers to increase business opportunities in the processing of under-utilized fish species. The group is developing better ways to overcome the waste management and pollution problems involved.

Fishermen from Point Pleasant, N.J., are organizing an experiment in the whiting fishery in an effort to reduce bycatch. "The traditional diamond-shaped mesh net traps too many whiting juveniles," according to Angela Caporelli, who staffed a mobile assistance center for NMFS during the proposal period and helped fishermen from Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey. The fishermen are experimenting with a square mesh to see if it will solve the problem.

In Connecticut, commercial fisherman William Bomster of Stonington wanted to determine the commercial potential of scarlet shrimp, an underutilized species. While searching for that species, of which he found few, he landed thousands of pounds of royal red shrimp, another underutilized species. "Most of the respondents to our market survey rated the shrimp excellent to good," explains Nancy Balcom, Connecticut Sea Grant Extension educator who assisted Bomster with the project, "and the prices offered ranged from $2 to $14 a pound. While we still have a lot to learn about this species, it looks like the royal red shrimp could support a limited fishery."

Geographically, the projects spread from Maine to Maryland. Maine has 17, New Hampshire three, Massachusetts 32, Rhode Island five, Connecticut two, New York two, New Jersey one, and Maryland one. "The majority of the applications, as well as the majority of the awards, involved fishermen in Maine and Massachusetts, and that's as it should be," according to Caporelli. "That's where most of the groundfishermen are, and they're the ones who were hit hardest by the changes to the fishing regulations."

The awards range from $7,042 for informational and educational materials for displaced fishermen at the Casa da Saudade Branch Library in New Bedford, Mass., to $654,904 for a commercial demonstration of land-based summer flounder aquaculture involving sites in Provincetown, Mass., and Davisville, R.I.

As with most such funding efforts, there was some controversy involved in the awards.

"Lots of good ideas didn"t get funded because the fishermen didn"t know how to put their ideas down or how to get help," explains Hall-Arber. "It was a complicated, bureaucratic process. There was quite a bit of bitterness, particularly after the first round."

"Early on, I saw it as public relations money and questioned whether it was an effective way to help fishermen," adds Dale Leavitt, a fisheries and aquaculture specialist with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Sea Grant. "There were a lot of frustrated fishermen who had good ideas but didn't submit proposals. The guidelines just blew them away."

Molly Benjamin, a Provincetown, Mass., aquaculturist and fisheries writer, wrote in a July 1995 column for the Cape Cod Times: "The final round of FIG grants has been announced, and 19 Massachusetts projects received funding. Unlike the last round, at least one actual groundfisherman was funded, which will mean that at least one true potentially displaced draggerman will be able to explore his vision of the future."

Stung by comments like these, NMFS was quick to respond that the 63 successful FIGs proposals are helping hundreds of fishermen and will benefit thousands more as they run their course. The agency also pointed out that the small number of grants given to universities were for projects that include fishermen and have a great potential to benefit fishermen. For example, a University of New Hampshire-based project headed by Godfrey Savage, mechanical and ocean engineering professor, is developing offshore codfish aquaculture technology. Fishermen provided the researchers with netpen design advice and helped them find the most suitable sites for the pens. In turn, the researchers are paying fishermen to help tend the pens. If the project ultimately succeeds, many current commercial fishermen could find career opportunities in codfish aquaculture.

The praise the FIGs program has received has much more than balanced the barbs. Most of those who fault the program's process applaud its possibilities.

"There isn't a good mechanism for funding aquaculture," explains Leavitt. "FIGs is making significant strides in developing the industry. It's good applied science." "I think the more people learn about and from FIGs, the more supportive they will be," adds Hall-Arber. She then introduces the second major area of criticism of the program. "However, it may be hard for other fishermen to follow the good examples that will come out of the process. Loans are hard to come by for ventures like these."

Beal thinks loans and other sources of funding will be available, however, and is making extensive plans to publicize the program's results. "We'll put out some special reports and cover the results in our regional newsletter. Commercial Fisheries News has done a good job of reporting on the FIGs grants and I think they'll want to report the results. We may put together some special workshops, either as independent events or as part of Fish Expo or one of the regional fisheries forums."

Barnaby sums it up: "It's an appropriate use of the money. But the results won't be in for years, and only then will we know if it was a wise use of the money."

Steve Adams is a Communications Coordinator for Maine/New Hampshire Sea Grant.