When new fishing restrictions are scheduled to go into effect later this year, the average number of fishing days for New Hampshire's fleet are expected to be cut in half.
The new rules were adopted by the New England Fishery Management Council last month as a result of federal requirements to rebuild dwindling stocks of groundfish in the region.
Local fishermen predict their industry will die a slow death and with it part of the Seacoast region's economy.
NHPR Correspondent Roger Wood spoke to some people involved in that industry and tourism in Portsmouth and files this report.
New federal regulations go into effect in September, and impose more restrictions on the number of days fishermen can be at sea.
The aim is to rebuild what marine biologists believe are severely depleted stocks of certain species they say are overfished.
Earlier this week, during a roundtable discussion, local fishermen predicted the new rules will have dire consequences for the region’s economy.
Earl Sanders, at the Olde Mill Fish Market in Portsmouth, says that he likes to sell locally caught fish.
But he's had to look elsewhere rather than wait for the diminishing local catch to come off the boats.
(Sanders) :06
“There’s no problem, we can get stuff from Japan, from Hawaii, from Chile, and from Norway and everywhere else in the world.â€
Sanders says in general consumers don't care where the fish came from.
But he worries about the economic survival of the local fishing fleet when the new rules take effect.
(Sanders 2) :08
“Twenty six days they cannot survive…I don’t think a farmer or anybody else could survive it to work twenty days a year. It just doesn’t make sense.â€
Sanders says that he expects fishermen will fight the new regulations, through the Congressional delegation.
Jay McSharry owns a local restaurant that specializes only in seafood.
He says that he thinks that the increased fishing restrictions can only hurt his business and that of others in the area.
(McSharrry) :09
“Prices go up and because of that we have to charge more. Which other industries for different reasons are feeling as well.â€
McSharry, too, has to shop for product in markets that are further away from New Hampshire,.
Another option is looking for locally available fish that are not normally that well-known.
(McSharry 2) :20
“Some of the things we do as restaurants is look to other fish that are under-utilized or under-appreciated that are a great fish, such as wolf fish out of Maine is a great fish, I think, and I have served that.â€
And Dick Ingraham, President of the Greater Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce, says that part of the attraction of the Seacoast is that it's a working fishing port.
(Ingraham) :13
“People come here because its not Disneyland, its not an artificial experience, it’s a real experience with real people making a living on the sea.â€
At the same time, Ingraham says that tourists won’t necessarily “connect the dots,†when it comes to ordering their seafood meals.
(Ingraham 2) :14
“People are not going to come to Portsmouth simply because they buy local seafood right off the docks, solely for that reason. Obviously its part of the equation.â€
But Ingraham adds, the seaport isn't the only industry in town and it's not the only attraction.
He says the areas economic diversity should help offset any negative effects of diminished activity at the working port.
For NHPR News, this is Roger Wood.
