Buyout Means More Fish, Fewer Boats in the Sea

The Lillebealt, the Skagerrak, the Molle, the South Bay: Big trawlers based in Morro Bay, Calif., they used to drag the ocean floor for thousands of tons of rockfish bound for markets and restaurants throughout the state.

Now, under a deal announced Tuesday by the Nature Conservancy, they’ll either be converted to less disruptive seagoing uses or be scrapped. Meanwhile, their owners will walk away with checks for several hundred thousand dollars each and dreams of new ways to earn a living, whether by land or by sea.

In exchange for the Nature Conservancy’s agreement to buy trawlers and the permits that allow them to operate, local fishermen last year endorsed a federal ban on bottom trawling in a Connecticut-sized swath of ocean from Santa Barbara County to Monterey County. The ban took effect last month.

Nature Conservancy officials on Tuesday hailed the arrangement, calling it a boon both for ravaged sea life and for a fishing community hard hit by soaring costs and a massive tide of regulation.

“We wanted to minimize the impact on the fishermen and maximize our ability to protect our marine resources,” said Chuck Cook, director of the conservancy’s coastal programs. “Through a collaborative effort, we’ve protected nearly 4 million acres of seafloor habitat.”

Widely considered one of the most destructive fishing methods, trawling involves dragging the ocean floor with weighted nets that indiscriminately scoop up everything in their path. But despite a catch that can be heavy with unwanted species, trawling also is so efficient that it helped Morro Bay thrive as a fishing center for decades.

“Historically, we’ve had millions of pounds of groundfish landed here over the decades,” said Rick Algert, Morro Bay’s harbor director. “Trawl landings were what sustained our workforce.”

In the early 1990s, governmental and scientific concern about overfishing led to increasingly tight restrictions on how much fish could be pulled from the sea. With boats staying out longer and coming in emptier, Morro Bay’s fishing-related businesses -- including such essential fixtures as its fish processor -- trickled away. The fleet dwindled from several hundred to fewer than 50 today.

“It’s a desperate business,” Algert said. “Almost all of our fishermen are looking for a way out.”

The sale announced Tuesday of four trawlers and six permits culminates three years of negotiations among federal agencies, environmental groups and fishermen in a harbor that had seen better times. Conservancy officials said owners of trawlers moored at other spots along the central coast also have expressed interest.

“I’m a businessman, and a good one,” said Gordon Fox, whose 60-foot trawler, South Bay, will formally be transferred to the Nature Conservancy at the end of July. “I could certainly see the trends here.”

Fox, 51, has been fishing since he was 20 and doesn’t intend to leave the sea, despite staggering increases in the cost of fuel, insurance and trucking. The buyout will allow him to purchase a smaller boat and enter the lucrative market for spot prawns -- seafood plucked from traps laid on the ocean floor instead of nets hauled across it.

“It boils down to sheer economics,” he said.

In five or 10 years, other fishermen might make similar choices, said the Nature Conservancy’s Cook. The group hopes to get government approval to lease some of its newly acquired fishing rights to locals willing to use traps and other “selective” gear to snag such pricey prey as black cod.

What will become of Fox’s boat is still unknown. If the Nature Conservancy can’t find buyers willing to convert the trawlers into research or law enforcement vessels, officials said the boats will be turned to scrap.

A number of boats sold in a government buyout a few years ago are now virtual derelicts in harbors around the state.

Fox declined to disclose just how much he will receive for his boat and his permit.

“It’s adequate, but it’s no golden parachute,” he said. “I’ll be back at work tomorrow.”