CHANGE IS HARD

Last Monday, I was one of many folks involved in conservation issues who was invited to attend New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Earth Day program here on Long Island.

The program wasn’t built around fish or marine resources, although the Governor did mention a bill that he had signed, which effectively outlawed purse seining for menhaden, and addressed some water quality issues.  

The high point occurred when the Governor signed new legislation that outlawed the use of plastic shopping bags throughout the state, something that might not have an immediate impact on the health of fish stocks, but will make our bays and shorelines a somewhat cleaner place.

But what I’m writing about today isn’t what the Governor did, or the bill that he signed, but rather what that he said as he described the long fight to get the bag bill through the state Legislature.

“Change is hard.”

Because change is hard when you deal with fisheries issues, too.

Fishermen are, by and large, a conservative bunch.  Not necessarily “conservative” in a political sense, although that, too, may be true, but in the sense of being very resistant to change.  They generally look to the past, and expect it to dictate the future, rather than looking to the future, and understanding that the past is forever gone. 

Suggestions that a quota, a regulation or, particularly, a business needs to change and conform to today’s reality are viewed as anathema, and vigorously and often angrily resisted; listening to them speak, it’s often clear that fishermen expect reality to be warped to conform to their needs and desires.

Because they have no plans to change.

Thus, at the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, biologists are recognizing that stocks of fish, such as summer flounder, are moving north and east as waters warm. 

States at the northern end of the flounder’s range have asked that allocations be revised, to recognize that the spatial distribution of summer flounder has changed substantially from what it was between 1981 and 1989, the years used to calculate the current state quotas.

But many fishermen, from all over the coast, oppose reallocation.  While many acknowledge that the flounder have moved, they still oppose reallocation, saying things such as

“New Jersey and other states earned their allocation [during the 1980s] and should maintain it,”

“There was a lot of work that went into getting an agreement on the initial allocation and that should be honored by not changing it,”

and

“North Carolina fishermen are the hardest workers on the east coast and their work helped establish the quota not only for North Carolina, but other states along the coast; given this, the allocations should remain as they are.”

In other words, we don’t want their world to change.  

Because, as Governor Cuomo said,

 “Change is hard.”

When the Governor said that, he also observed that

“We know the truth,”

about many environmental or conservation issues, and recognize that things have to change, but too often stand by and do nothing, because, of course,

“Change is hard.”

When I heard him say that, I couldn’t help thinking of the many, many fisheries meetings that I have attended, where members of both the commercial and recreational fishing industry argued vehemently argued that “there are plenty of fish out there,” in an effort to contradict peer-reviewed stock assessments that convincingly found that was not so.

I have to believe that most of those fishing industry folks knew, in their hearts, that the stock assessments are true.  When you’re out on the water every day, you’re quick to notice when fish become scarce.  You notice when you have to travel farther every day, and still catch fewer fish than you used to catch right outside the inlet; you notice when the fish that you catch start getting smaller; you notice when once-productive spots go cold, and all of the fish that you catch come from just a few places, and only at certain times.

But you don’t want to admit it, because if you do that, you leave yourself open to accepting changes; changes in regulations, changes in income, changes in how, and even if, your business can operate.  So you go to the meetings and yell “Status quo!,” and even though cod populations have been in a nosedive for a few decades now, you announce that

“The fishermen vehemently dispute this latest assessment.  We have had problems with the cod stock assessment going on 20 years now,”

because the assessments confirm what you already know.  And that means that things have to change.  But, since

“Change is hard,”

instead of supporting meaningful action, you deny the truth for as long as you can, and hope any change somehow passes you by.

But in the end, you can’t escape reality.  You can accept it and plan for the change, or you can deny it and claim outraged surprise when it comes up behind you and bites.

Too many folks involved in fisheries matters tend to elect the latter option, when they should, to steal Governor Cuomo’s language for one last time (because yes, he does have a way with words),

“Expose the problem, then lead the way on its solution.”

That, the Governor said, is what New York seeks to do on environmental issues, and it’s what we all ought to do when we address fisheries matters, too.

Because yes, change is hard, but it’s also inevitable.  Planning for change ultimately brings far more success than futilely clinging to a past that’s dead and gone, and will never return.

That means accepting the fact that, with coastal populations expanding and ever-greater stresses being placed on marine resources, fishing—whether commercial or recreational—is always going to be regulated.  And realizing that, as more anglers enter our remaining fisheries, those regulations are probably always going to be about as tough as they are now.

We’re never going to see a 14” fluke limit again.

So it’s time to stop lamenting about what summer flounder fishing was like twenty years ago, and start worrying about what it will be like twenty years from now, when a whole new generation of anglers, many not yet even born, will be on the water.  

As Governor Cuomo noted a few days ago (I know I said I’d stop stealing his language, but since he stole this one from somebody else…)

“We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.”

Those children have a right to enjoy a vibrant and sustainable fishery in their future, long after we, who enjoyed the past, are dead and gone.

If they are to receive their rightful share of the resource, to steward and pass on in their turn, there will have to be change. 

Fisheries will have to be managed for sustainable abundance, and not short-term yield. 

That’s particularly true in recreational fisheries, where managers must shift their emphasis from maximizing dead fish on the docki to maximizing live fish in the water. 

The sort of thinking that led to the Bluefish Allocation Amendment now pending at the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council—that anglers aren’t landing their full allocation, so the fish ought to be reallocated to commercial fishermen, who will be glad to kill them instead—belongs in the past.  

Managers need to change their understanding of recreational fisheries, recognize that the angling experience, for most, is about far more than dead fish, and accept the fact that fish left in the water to be caught, released, and then caught again are being as fully utilized as those that are caught once and killed.

Having said that, there are some anglers who fish mostly for food.  Even so, old business paradigms, born when there were more abundant fish and far fewer anglers, are already proving hard to sustain.  

The days of heavy coolers and light regulation belong to the past.  If angling-related businesses intend to still be around ten or twenty years from now, this is the time to create new business plans that are built not around expanding customer’s kill, but on expanding the customer base, and providing experiences that more people—not just hard-core anglers—will want to enjoy.

That’s a tough sell to old salts, who have been conditioned to define success by the number of fish they put on the dock.  But if there’s one truth in business, it’s that you either change with the times or you fail.

Even if change is hard.

Commercial fisheries are governed by the same rule.  The days of filling the hold with cod, or summer flounder, or sea bass, are forever gone.  It’s a time of real change.

I just received word today that, as of May 1, trip limits for New York’s commercial fishermen will fall to just 70 pounds of summer flounder and 50 pounds of black sea bass.  Those are very small limits, yet both species may still be legally caught in trawls, which often entrap far greater quantities of fish in a single tow.  Since the discard mortality rate of summer flounder caught in trawls is very high—close to 60% on short tows, and over 75% on longer ones—most of the excess fish caught are killed and wasted.

From a resource perspective, and from an ethical perspective, too, that waste is wrong, and calls out for change.  Whether that change comes in the form of restrictions on gear, larger trip limits and shorter seasons, or perhaps the sort of catch share program that has worked well in other fisheries remains to be seen. But whatever form it eventually takes, one thing is sure—fishermen will be adamantly against it.

Because change is hard, even when it’s needed, and makes perfect sense.

When he spoke on Long Island last Monday, Governor Cuomo didn’t say much about fish.

At least in one respect.

But in another, when he acknowledged that change was hard, but also recognized that the only way to move forward, on any issue, was to expose the problem, and then lead the way to a solution—to, in fact, be an agent of change—he said everything that really matters.