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Lack of a vision has exacerbated efibrts to develop practical solutions to the prob- 

 lems facing the resource. Past attempts through traaitional regulatory channels to 

 develop that vision have failed, and there has Deen no leadership at the federal or 

 state level to develop that vision. NOAA has launched a town meetings process in 

 an effort to start to aevelop a "bottom-up" process for creating that vision. Most fish- 

 ermen do not view that as a truly bottoms-up approach, but it is a start. Although 

 that process faces enormous challenges, it has helped to stimulate a bottoms-up 

 community based approach to defining a regional vision. 



Responsibility for the failure of the fishery must be shared by the federal govern- 

 ment, commercial fishermen, state and federal elected oflicials, scientists, academic 

 institutions, community leaders in the affected communities, and the environmental 

 community. The federsd government helped to cause this problem through its failure 

 to adequately regulate the resource and through its development of financing pro- 

 grams which helped to over-capitalize the industry. Neither the regulatory or legis- 

 lative branches have exhibited leadership in this failure. Each is reactive in nature, 

 and each responds to perceived constituent pressures. Ironically, much of the federal 

 government's failure over the past two decades was the direct result of their desire, 

 however shortsighted and misguided, to appease the only constituency which was 

 involved in the debate over fisheries regulations for years — the commercial fishing 

 industry — even if the elements of the industry they responded to were not rep- 

 resentative of the industry overall. 



Clear distinctions need to be made between the short-term and long-term policies 

 and programs required to effectively address the problems of the northeastern fish- 

 ery. Short-term solutions will include emergency measures to protect the resource, 

 direct economic relief for fishermen and their families, and provide seed funding to 

 initiate transition strategies. The short term programs will not solve the fisheries 

 problem. They can help to reduce the fishing power of the fleet, and they can miti- 



fate the pain caused by the dislocation and downsizing in the industry, and can 

 elp to lay the groundwork for longer term efforts. Short term transition strategies 

 should address legitimate economic aid relief requirements in the affected commu- 

 nities, but they should be crafted to support rather than inhibit the development 

 of economically and ecologically sustainable strategies. 



Long term strategies must provide for the long term sustainabilitv of the resource 

 and the communities as the overriding goals. The communities' ecological and socio- 

 economic systems should focus on four conditions- diversity, productivity, stability, 

 and adaptability. Revitalization plans should insure that the communities' ecologi- 

 cal, economic, and human capital meet the needs of both current and future genera- 

 tions (TNC 1994). 



Community economic development programs are a primary target of the current 

 relief programs. EfTorts to revitalize the fishing industry through community eco- 

 nomic development programs have been attempted before. Some have succeeded 

 over the short term, but none have proved to be sustainable over the long haul. 

 Some of those programs provided short-term benefits to certain commercial stake- 

 holders, they were not sustainable over the long term. To be successful over the long 

 term, economic development programs must be coupled with sustainable manage- 

 ment of the resource. Otherwise they will fail, or tney may hasten the decline of 

 the resource. 



Denial by conmiercial fishermen of their role in the fisheries' decline, and their 

 unwillingness to accept the ramifications of the consequences of years of overfishing 

 has been a problem for decades, and it continues to be a major problem today. Fail- 

 ure of the major stakeholders to accept blame for their roles in the failure of the 

 northeastern fishery has been and continues to be a major problem. The industry 

 has yet to come to grips with the fact that its fishing power, particularly within the 

 large boat fleet, must be reduced, and that it must downsize to maintain its viabil- 

 ity. Until that occurs, the ability to develop effective and realistic transition strate- 

 gies for the affected communities will be significantly limited. 



The current atmosphere of "finger-pointing" and "blame -laying" must be shifted 

 to collaborative problem solving. The commercial fishermen and the commercial 

 fishing industry must accept responsibility for their individual and collective roles 

 in the collapse of the fishery. Similarly, federal bureaucrats and the scientific com- 

 munity must acknowledge their role in the decline of the industry, and the environ- 

 mental community should acknowledge the legitimacy of the complaints of the com- 

 mercial fishermen about the failures of the management system and their past ef- 

 forts to address them. The federal and state governments should assist with amelio- 

 rating the pain caused by the collapse of the industry. Fishermen are going to have 

 to band together and reach out to constituencies which they currently do not trust 

 and in fact oppose, such as the environmental community, if there is to be any hope 

 of restoring the resource and maintaining a viable industry. 



