Federal regulators can change any part of the New England council’s newly crafted plan.

PEABODY, Mass. (AP) – This week’s meeting of the New England Fishery Management Council exposed divisions between fisherman of different regions and boat sizes. It inspired an odd mix of disgust, hope and confusion among attendees at the sometimes excruciating proceedings.

And at midnight Thursday, it produced an historic slate of rules aimed at preserving the region’s fish and fishermen during one of the industry’s worst crises.

Whether it did enough was being debated before the final gavel was struck.

The new rules promised more pain to the staggering industry by cutting fishing days, but tried to give fisherman new ways to hang on.

The recommendation of the council – an advisory body made up of environmentalists, scientists and fishing industry representatives – now faces detailed analysis by federal regulators, who are under a court order to stop overfishing.

Gloucester fishermen Russell Sherman said the council did its job.

“This is the best plan we could come up with,” he said. “None of the guys are going to like it, but once they sit down and rationalize, they’ll realize … it’s the best deal we could get.”

Priscilla Brooks of the Conservation Law Foundation, an environmental group, said the council missed a chance to take bold steps to rebuild fish populations, instead falling back on policies that haven’t stopped overfishing.

In December 2001, U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler ordered the National Marine Fisheries Service to come up with tighter restrictions, saying it wasn’t doing enough to stop overfishing.

The rules, called Amendment 13, go into effect in May. The federal regulators can remake any part of the New England council’s plan if they don’t believe it will satisfy Kessler. That put added pressure on the council.

“These are hard decisions and nobody in their right mind wants to be faced with making them,” said council member Thomas Hill during the second day of meetings. “But we are.”

The council passed a 24 percent cut in fishing days, compared with 2002 levels, which gives most fisherman a maximum of 53 days at sea. But it added a series of innovative measures to try to help fisherman absorb the cut.

It approved a new program that will allow fishermen to lease out unused fishings days, but only after adopting a compromise that smaller boat owners hope will prevent large boat owners from absorbing the dormant days and pushing them out of the fleet.

For the first time, the council gave fishermen the ability to organize into sectors based on gear – such as gillnets. The sectors get a guaranteed allotment of fish, which fishermen divide among themselves

Perhaps the major provision was the creation of a “B” class of extra fishing days on which fishermen can target only healthy stocks. The idea, proposed by a Gloucester-based fishing group, was to give fishermen a chance to earn money while still protecting vulnerable fish.

From the minute it was proposed, Maine fishermen said the additional “B Days” wouldn’t help them because they were too far away from the recovered fish populations. On Thursday, Maine-based council members made an unsuccessful attempt to scrap the plan.

Portland, Maine, fisherman Craig Pendleton said hundreds of fishermen will be out of business now because of the steep cuts.

He added that small boat operators can’t afford to lease additional days.

“I’m just totally disgusted by the whole process,” he said. “There’s no sense and there’s no compassion.”

Chris Zeman of the environmental group Oceana said the council’s attempt to control fish populations by limiting fishing days has always resulted in fishermen exceeding the target catch. He called for tough quotas that shut down a fishery when a limit on vulnerable stock, but the council wouldn’t do it. He said he hopes the NMFS will.

“Fishermen say, “trust us, we’ll stay off the weak fish,’ ” Zeman said. “That hasn’t happened.”

Robert Lane, a New Bedford fisherman, said a leasing program would help him compensate for lost fishing days. But he said even the good news from the meeting didn’t stop him from thinking about his future in fishing.

“I went into business, not to survive, I went in to make a living,” he said. “Now it’s turned into survivability. Who the hell goes to work just to survive?”

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On the Net:

http://www.nefmc.org/

http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/

http://www.oceana.org/

http://www.clf.org/

AP-ES-11-07-03 1602EST