Working Waterfront
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The loss of water access is hindering recreational boaters, commercial fishermen, and water-dependent businesses around the nation’s coasts. Working waterfronts (which consist of marinas, boat repair yards, fish piers, and charter fishing docks) are rapidly changing, now being used for private residential developments and non-water dependent businesses.
Rising real estate taxes tied to “highest and best use” assessments and escalating property values fueled by the public’s desire to live by the water are driving the conversion. Water-dependent businesses, such as haul-out service yards, seafood handling facilities, and boat builders, are losing access to the water as well. These losses compound the challenges that decision-makers at all levels of government face in trying to balance population growth, public services, and economic development with the demand for public access to, and on, the water.
It is critical for fishermen – to be able to access fish in ocean waters – that they have ports and the infrastructure therein that they can operate from. No other fact of life so fundamentally undermines fishing’s coastal way of life than the alienation of traditional access that underpins the local resource-based economies of fishing. Each port needs mooring space, facilities to maintain and repair vessels, gear and supply shops, open space to work on gear, fueling facilities, ice plant(s), cold storage facilities, fish buyers/auction space, fish processors, transportation for fish and fish products, as well as the Coast Guard and/or port security. Channel dredging and jetty maintenance are all important to allow for fishing vessels to move safely in and out of ports.
Waterfront land values are rising at astronomical rates (and taxes rising with them). It is predicted that the coastside population will increase by another 20% by 2015 (Coastal Sprawl: The Effects of the Urban Design on Aquatic Ecosystems, Beach, 2002). While coastal watershed counties comprise less than 25% of the land area in the US, they are home to 52% of the total US population. It is predicted that average increases of 3,600 people a day will move to coastal counties, reaching a population of 165 million by 2015 (US Commission on Ocean Policy, An Ocean Blueprint on Ocean Policy, 2004).
Waterfront property is being sold and converted into private spaces and second homes that no longer are the center of economic activity. In Maine, for example, only 25 miles of shoreline support over 26,000 fishing-related jobs and provide the access necessary to sustain an industry worth over $740 million, according to the Island Institute. The pressures that drive the commercial fishing industry from these vital pieces of infrastructure are mounting. Across the nation in different ports, the same story is being told over and over: fishermen can’t afford to live by the water anymore, they can’t afford to even keep their boats docked in the port, and in some cases have resorted to having to trailer their boats in by truck each day before they go fishing.
Resources for the Protection of Working Waterfronts: Florida, Maine, Rhode Island, Washington, California (San Diego), Maryland.
The Working Waterways & Waterfronts National Symposium on Water Access 2010: September 27-30, 2010, Portland, Maine. Read more…
Current Legislation to help Protect Working Waterfronts
H.R. 2548 and S. 533, The Keep America’s Waterfronts Working Act of 2009, is currently pending in Congress. The legislation would provide up to $150 million in matching grants and other support for states to develop working waterfront projects.
The Working Waterfront Access Pilot Program in the state of Maine has helped create nineteen wharfs owned by municipalities, families and cooperatives of fishermen which will remain protected for ongoing fisheries-related uses. The Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) is providing over $5 million to help with purchase of access easements, rights of way, and development rights to preserve properties dedicated to commercial fisheries. According to the DMR, these wharfs support over 900 jobs, up to 16 million pounds of seafood each year and at least $40 million in income.
