A commercial fisherman pulls up something that was never supposed to be on the hook during a brief, usually hectic moment on the water. A drowsy, tangled loggerhead sea turtle. An Atlantic sturgeon that shouldn’t be there is breaking the surface. A sawfish with small teeth. What a fisherman knows or doesn’t know can make the difference between a dead animal and one that has been recovered in those brief moments. Furthermore, it can increasingly mean the difference between a career that is quietly collapsing due to federal infractions and a license that remains intact.
NOAA Fisheries is attempting to address that issue this summer by holding a number of workshops along the Atlantic coast. On July 1, one of those sessions will take place at the Residence Inn by Marriott on Seabay Lane in Ocean City, Maryland. It is not exactly an option for some commercial vessel owners and operators, and it operates from nine in the morning until one in the afternoon.
Anyone with a federal shark or swordfish permit who uses bottom longline, pelagic longline, or gillnet gear must be present. Sea turtles, marine mammals, smalltooth sawfish, Atlantic sturgeon, and prohibited shark species are among the entangled or hooked protected species that are handled and released during the training. Participants receive a certificate that must be renewed every three years, submitted annually with permit renewal applications, and stored on board the vessel. Permit renewal becomes problematic if the recertification is missed. It sounds like a bureaucratic paperwork and compliance system until you are the one whose permit is in jeopardy.
Beyond the legal requirement, the workshop is worth considering because of its implications for the future of commercial fishing. For years, NOAA has been balancing the need to protect marine species under the Endangered Species Act with the need to maintain the economic viability of fishing communities. Better handling procedures and enhanced species identification could help prevent future regulatory pressure on the fisheries, the agency has stated publicly. Dangling that in front of people who depend on the water for their livelihood and have seen regulations tighten around them for decades is no small matter.
The Ocean City session is a component of a larger circuit. The itinerary for this year includes stops in Kenner, Louisiana; Vero Beach, Florida; and Melville, New York. Angler Conservation Education, a contractor that handles registration and logistics, is in charge of the workshops. Fishermen who have previously attended an in-person session can recertify online as long as their name, permit number, email address, and cell phone number match the information on file. It has a certain level of accuracy that indicates the program has been in use long enough to smooth out its flaws.
It’s difficult to ignore that the workshop lands at a time when NOAA and protected species oversight seem to be at an all-time high. The agency has been under external pressure on a number of fronts, from fishing communities opposing restrictions to conservationists questioning rollbacks. A Tuesday morning in a hotel conference room with turtle anatomy diagrams seems like a sensible compromise somewhere in that tension. It’s still unclear if it’s sufficient.
The stakes are immediate and tangible for the fisherman who arrives at 9 a.m. with his boat registration and permits. He is not considering policy. He’s contemplating the upcoming excursion, the equipment in the water, and whether he will know what to do in the event of an unforeseen situation in the net.
After July 1st, he most likely will.
