|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The New England Fishery Management Council won’t make a controversial scallop permit-stacking proposal a priority in 2027. That’s despite federal officials directing the regulators to do just that.
The council voted overwhelmingly last week to respond to the federal government’s early July request by saying that it “lacks the operational capacity” to take action on the permitting change next year.
Federal officials handed down six requests for the council to discuss, a byproduct of a 2025 Trump Administration executive order aimed at ending “overregulation” and the “erosion of American seafood competitiveness at the hands of unfair foreign trade practices.”
Only one of them, the permit-stacking request, had this caveat: If the council can’t take up the permit stacking issue, federal officials are prepared to consider doing it themselves.
They may do so through a “secretarial amendment,” wrote Eugenio Piñeiro Soler, the assistant administrator for fisheries for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in an early July letter.
If so, NOAA officials would handle the regulatory change instead of the council, with opportunities for council and public input.
Scallop permits have been tied to a single vessel for decades. Permit-stacking would allow owners to move more permits onto one boat. That could allow crews to take multiple trips throughout the year, while owners could thin out aging fleets.
But not everyone wants permit-stacking, The Light has reported.
Opponents fear permit-stacking could contribute to consolidation of the scalloping industry, that it’d be a cash grab for boat owners, and that it could mean less work for crews and shoreside workers in the long run. NOAA’s letter also highlighted possible risks associated with the plan, like “foreign ownership, job reductions, and erosion of our critical working waterfronts.”
The fisheries council rejected a similar proposal called “permit leasing” for scallop vessels in 2022. Some members questioned why they were being directed to essentially reopen the conversation now.
“I’m just a little frustrated that we’re being forced to continue to revisit decisions that we’ve already made,” Geoffrey Smith, council member and Maine program director for The Nature Conservancy, said during last week’s council meeting.
Good for the industry or not?
Dubbed “Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness,” Trump’s Executive Order 14276 proclaimed the “United States should be the world’s dominant seafood leader.” But due in part to “overregulation,” the nation hasn’t fulfilled that goal, it said.
The April 2025 order ultimately sent the directive to take up scallop permit-stacking into the laps of regional fisheries officials.
Tony Alvernaz, co-owner of six boats in New Bedford, told the council that he favors permit-stacking. He said overhauling the engine on one of his boats cost him $160,000.
“I could go on and on. New plating, new this, new that,” Alvernaz said. “You equate that to the sea days I’ve been allocated this year for that boat, I’ll be lucky to make payments on it.”
Alvernaz said “you can’t run a business” with the 36 days federally allotted this year to the scallop fleet to fish.
Others aren’t convinced about permit-stacking.
“It’s strictly a financial-based decision; it has nothing to do with the resource,” Tyler Miranda, a captain running three scallop boats out of New Bedford, told The Light. “No regulation should ever be written for financial purposes, right?”
Miranda, who also captains one of Alvernaz’s boats, said permit-stacking will prompt owners to sell off antiquated vessels. While he realized it sounds like a good deal to some, he wonders where the proposal will leave others — like shore workers.
“There will be less work for them,” Miranda said. “That’s an instant impact… less boats means less work for those people.”
He noted that permit “leasing” had already been put before the public and was rejected. A “stacking” proposal could have similar effects, The Light reported.
“My opinion hasn’t changed,” Miranda said. “I think some of these guys that feel kind of in line with me, I don’t think they’re going to change their opinion.”
“Threatened”
Some council members took issue with NOAA’s approach to moving the permit-stacking issue along. Council member Togue Brawn likened the move to “being threatened.”
“They don’t like the decisions that we’ve made, and now they’re telling us to make other decisions,” Brawn said during the meeting. “What is our obligation here? What’s legal, what’s not legal? I’m just a little confused.”
Mitch MacDonald, a NOAA attorney, said the U.S. Secretary of Commerce is authorized to implement a secretarial amendment under federal law.
Council member Megan Ware, and other members, said the council doesn’t have time to take up every issue related to the fisheries.
As it is, the body has nearly 60 priorities on its 2027 draft list, according to a staff presentation.
“This is a question of how we want to spend our staff hours,” Ware said. “There are some really big ticket items ahead of us… So how would you weigh [permit-stacking] against those other priorities?”
Industry leaders have tried to move the permitting change through the council, with no luck, Sam Martin, chief operating officer for Atlantic Capes Fisheries, told regulators on Wednesday.
“I really don’t want the council to take it up,” Martin said, “I don’t think the council has time to take it up, and I think the process will be served well with [NOAA].”
Brent Fulcher, a member of the council’s Scallop Advisory Panel, agreed.
“We’ve been there too long,” Fulcher said about scallop permit-stacking. “At the council level, it’s too contentious to get there.”
“All tee’d up”
If the Commerce Secretary delivers a secretarial action on permit stacking, NOAA has “things kind of tee’d up to start the scoping process,” Mike Pentony, the agency’s administrator for the Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office, said during the meeting.
Council members were assured there was a chance for them to give input — and for the public as well.
Cate O’Keefe, the council’s executive director, said her conversations with NOAA leadership have led her to believe that the agency’s stacking policy would be narrow in scope, “maybe as narrow as the ability to stack two permits on one boat,” she said during the meeting.
If the federal government steps in and crafts the regulation itself, Pentony said, a public discussion phase would start soon after, likely before the council’s December meeting. Pentony said the agency would be working against an early April 2027 deadline to submit specifications for the permit-stacking proposal.
Nathan Collins is an investigative journalist and a Report for America corps member, covering the fishing industry, oceans and the blue economy. Report for America places talented journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and regions. Email Nathan Collins at ncollins@newbedfordlight.org.
