Group Gives State Fishermen Voice on High Seas

Chuck Janisse says the term “fishing organization” is an oxymoron. Most commercial fishermen are hooked on competition, rather than cooperation.

But with Japan fishing the high seas like never before and China making every effort to surpass the Japanese, fishermen from the U.S. are being forced to cooperate.

As executive director of the newly formed Federation of Independent Seafood Harvesters (FISH), Janisse of Ojai said it is his goal to make sure the 100 or so full-time fishermen in the state’s $7.2-million thresher shark and swordfish industry have a say in studies and the development of international fishing regulations.

“We’re sick of putting out fires,” said the 52-year-old boat builder and former fisherman.

“Our goal is to stay ahead of the curve.”

Before the Ventura organization began on Jan. 18, its members were represented by two groups, the California Gillnetters Assn. and the Pacific Offshore Fishermen’s Assn. The Gillnetters, under the leadership of Tony West of San Pedro, focused their lobbying efforts on the state level. Pete Dupuy of Tarzana was the president of the offshore fishermen’s group, and his main focus was federal regulations.

With Dupuy, who owns the Ventura-based fishing boat Karen Marie, and West as co-directors, FISH will eliminate duplication by the two groups and provide members with an organized voice on domestic and international fishing issues, Janisse said.

Since 1976, when the federal government established the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) banning foreign commercial fishing within 200 miles of the U.S., fishery management has primarily been the responsibility of state and federal lawmakers. As such, industry groups have focused their lobbying efforts on the state and federal levels.

But with the U.S. State Department now working with foreign governments to manage the thresher shark and swordfish industry in international waters, domestic fishermen have been forced to switch bait if they want their voice heard. That’s where FISH comes in.

“The trend in fishery management is for expanding the focus to the international level. We’re dealing with a finite resource and the pressure on that resource is increasing because of the competition by fishermen throughout the world,” Janisse said.

“We’re trying to develop an organization that will reflect the fishermen and their interests,” he said.

To achieve his goal, Janisse will continue some of the former groups’ efforts, including participating in studies on marine mammals accidentally caught in nets, as well as fish population assessments.

The group will also continue its effort to fight regulations pushed by the powerful sportfishing lobby. For example, sportfishermen are backing a plan that would allow them exclusive use of “replenishment zones,” in which commercial fishing would be banned. “They are always attacking us, and we are constantly going up against them,” Janisse said.

To understand their concerns, it is important to realize that thresher shark and swordfish do not confine themselves to one area. Both are highly migratory species.

For example, swordfish--the most lucrative of the local drift net stocks, selling for between $3 and $5 a pound at the dock--sometimes spend years traveling great distances across the Pacific Ocean.

As long as the fish stay within the EEZ, they are the U.S. fishermen’s alone. But once they hit the high seas, anyone can go after them, including the fiercely competitive Japanese and Chinese, whose North Pacific fleets dwarf the number of domestic fishermen.

Because of this, it is important for U.S. fishermen to have a say in making international regulations, Janisse said. This includes being involved in stock assessments--the process used to determine how many fish there are in a certain area--as well as providing input to lawmakers drafting the regulations.

“The fishermen are the first to understand that if there isn’t a healthy fishery, they are out of business,” Janisse said.

The development of international fishing treaties involves determining how many fishermen from a given nation work a fishery and how much they catch in a typical year. Then the nations using that area allocate a fishing quota based on each country’s participation.

“These species do not stay in U.S. waters, and when they move, the take is going to be by whoever doesn’t sign on to the agreement,” Janisse said. Often, those who don’t sign are unrestricted in the amount of fish they take, he said.

Janisse said some nations, especially China, should be pressured to comply with international regulations.

“China is increasing its fleets at phenomenal rates. The Pacific stocks are healthy, but if pressure is not put on China, that could change,” he said.

Japan is another major player in the highly migratory fish trade in the Pacific, along with South Pacific countries that receive lobbying money from the European Commission, according to Rod McInnis, chief of the National Marine Fisheries Service’s fisheries management division in Long Beach.

“There is considerable international competition in the marketplace. The fish that are caught in California could wind up anywhere in the world. And the fish you buy in the market could come from Chile or Asia,” he said.

One of the first steps taken by the federal government to deal with the competition from foreign fishing boats was a high-seas fishing compliance act, passed by Congress and signed by the president in 1995.

The law requires U.S. fishermen to be licensed to fish in international waters.

A year later, the United Nations passed a resolution limiting fishing of highly migratory or “straddling stocks.”

“That was the United Nations saying, ‘OK. It’s time for everybody involved in the fishing of highly migratory species to figure out what we’re going to do to protect those species,’ ” McInnis said. The U.S. has yet to pass legislation implementing the U.N. resolution.

McInnis said FISH is similar to a merging of East Coast and Gulf-region tuna fishermen in 1985. “In that case, some fishermen wanted to have a say in the development of a similar type of regional fishing agreement.”

The group, the Blue Water Fishermen’s Assn., has been the voice of that region’s tuna fishermen ever since.

In November, State Department officials announced a plan to split the Pacific into three geographic areas. Among them would be a group overseeing the eastern Pacific, which includes the West Coast.

“There is a move toward international cooperative management of these species. When that happens, there is going to be additional restrictions on what they can catch and how much they can catch,” he said, adding that the limits may even rise. “The catch may be greater than what they are catching now.”

No one expects any changes to take place overnight.

“There’s a long way to go before we know what shape this whole thing will take in the future,” McInnis said.