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Conservation organizations cannot limit their involvement in the fisheries to tra- 

 ditional adversarial legal and legislative action, if they hope to establish respectful 

 working relationships with the fishing industry, and they need to establish those 

 relationships. They have a responsibihty to woii to fmd practicable solutions which 

 take into account the legitimate concerns of the commercial fishing industry and 

 balance commercial and sport-fishing interests and conserve the resource, even 

 though they may be funded by sport-fishing. Simply trying to reduce over-fishing 

 is not enoiigh, although it shoula be the fundamental component of conservation 

 strategies. They should shift away from fandraising strategies which are based on 

 polarizing and opposing commercial fishing and instead attempt to find common 

 ground and develop collaborative solutions with fishermen who are willing to work 

 with them. 



The future of the northeastern fishing industry will be significantly impacted by 

 land-based development trends in the fisning communities and broader regional eco- 

 nomic issues. Anv transition strategy or economic diversification strategy must be 

 linked to comprehensive community development plans. Ties should be established 

 between organizations concerned about fisheries management, community develop- 

 ment corporations, such as Coastal Enterprises and Working Capital, and land con- 

 servation organizations such as The Nature Conservancy, the Trust For Public 

 Land, and land trusts such as the Maine Coast Heritage Trust, which are working 

 to develop sustainable community development initiatives. 



The Northeast fisheries "crisis can only be solved if the need for community eco- 

 nomic development and job creation can be reconciled with the biophysical con- 

 straints of the resource and the ecosystem which supports it. Indicators of sustain- 

 ability need to be developed for the Northeast fisheries, the communities involved, 

 and the ecosystem which supports them, which take into account the peculiarities 

 of the region and the fragmentation of the industry. 



Criteria for sustainability need to be applied to efforts to revitalize the fishery and 

 the affected communities. These criteria should provide for measuring the health of 

 the fishery five years and ten years out, the health of the communities five years 

 and ten years out, the number of fish and mix of fish stocks desired and the number 

 of vessels which should be fishing. 



External economic pressures on these communities combined with the internal 

 problems of the fishing industry will insure that the commercial fishing industry 

 will not survive in many communities unless those communities take steps to pro- 

 vide the facilities and support services to sustain them. Attention should be focused 

 on community-based economic development and planning efforts, which force the 

 key ports, and the towns and cities which service them, to confront the future of 

 commercial fishing within the context of a holistic assessment of their overall com- 

 munity goals. 



Past efforts to "revitalize" the fishery largely focused on economic development. 

 These efforts failed to stem the decline of the fishery because they failed to address 

 the fundamental, systemic problems facing the fishery. Nor did tney include strong 

 enforceable management plans. Solving" tne fisheries problem will require the de- 

 velopment of a comprehensive integrated approach which addresses the complex 

 array of socio-economic, valuational, political, biological, and institutional problems 

 facing the fishery, the communities which the fishery supports and the region. 

 These tenets must be incorporated into regional and community-based transition 

 strategies. Otherwise the mistakes of the last half century will be repeated and re- 

 coverj' efforts will be doomed from the outset. 



Relationships between fishing groups and environmental organizations in New 

 England are contentious and adversarial. The fishing community views the environ- 

 mental community as the enemy. Resources need to be devoted to repairing those 

 relationships and seeking out areas of common ground. Non-threatening forums for 

 exploring new approaches to solving the fisheries dilemma need to be developed. 



Within the environmental community, the primary responsibility for developing 

 comprehensive long term solutions to the fisheries problem should lie with the re- 

 gional and local organizations. Developing community based solutions requires sig- 

 nificant investments of time and personal relationships which can only be developed 

 through regular close contact with people who have an investment in those commu- 

 nities. The national environmental organizations do not have the relationships and 

 community ties to play an effective role developing comprehensive regional solutions 

 to the northeastern fisheries crisis. On the other hand, the northeastern fisheries 

 crisis is a resource problem of national and international significance. It affect one 

 of the most important and productive ecosystems in the world. The issues associated 

 with it reflect the challenges facing fisheries and marine ecosystems worldwide. 



The national organizations can, however, play an important role in the policy de- 

 bate and can bring important and valuable resources and experience to bear from 



