The Stonington Fisheries Alliance works to promote responsible local fishery management through education, advocacy and scientific inquiry. The Penobscot East Resource Center provides technical assistance and support to the Stonington Fisheries Alliance.

Members of the Stonington Fisheries Alliance at a recent meeting.

The Stonington Fisheries Alliance formed in the winter of 1999, when a small group of concerned Deer Isle and Stonington residents, disillusioned with federal fisheries management, began working together to demonstrate that responsible, well-managed fisheries are possible.

The Stonington Fisheries Alliance hopes to do something positive at a local scale. It is active in many projects, including supporting marine science and marine trades education in local schools, and inventorying and describing the fishery of Deer Isle.

The Stonington Fisheries Alliance operates based on the following principles:

FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

I. Fishermen must hold authority in management.
Local community-based governance bodies are needed where fishermen, through their associations, have the primary role in the stewardship and management of all adjacent fishery resources and ecosystems that support them.

II. Rules must protect the community. A sound and healthy fishery is based in a sound and healthy community.

III. Management decisions must be made at the most local level possible.

IV. Authority comes with participation. The privilege and opportunity of authority in fishery management is dependent upon, and exists to the extent of our willingness for, participation in discussion and decision-making at every level.

OPERATIVE PRINCIPLES

1. Protect reproduction.
Fisheries must be managed in a way that recognizes critical points in the life history strategies and spawning patterns of species.
2. Protect juveniles.
Fisheries must be managed in a way that will allow adequate numbers of juveniles to reach reproductive age.
3. Maintain food chain relationships.
Fisheries must be managed in a way that recognizes and protects food chain linkages.
4. Maintain critical habitat.
All activities must be managed so as to maintain the integrity of habitats critical for spawning, juveniles and feeding.
5. Protect local stocks.
Fisheries must be managed in a way that protects local stocks where there is a probability that they exist.
6. Establish and recognize effort controls and limits.
Fisheries must be managed in a way that recognizes reasonable limits on harvesting capability. Such controls must be set by local governance bodies and reflect local fishing practices.
7. Diversify fishing livelihoods.
Fisheries must be managed in a way that promotes multi-species fishing livelihoods that allow fishermen to adapt to the natural fluctuations in abundance of commercial species and changes in markets, relieving fishing pressure on scarce species while maintaining fishing livelihoods.
8. Promote owner-operated fisheries.
Owner-operated fisheries must be promoted so that management is not driven by corporate interests.
9. Retain fish as a public resource.
Fisheries should not be privatized but managed to sustain local communities and ensure future generations have an equal or better opportunity to access fishery resources.