PORTLAND -- New England fishery managers on Wednesday moved toward a system of assigning catch shares in hopes of rescuing the region's commercial fishing fleet.

The new approach, which could be finalized this morning, would be a historic shift for the 400-year-old groundfish industry.

"If we stick with what we got now, we're done. So we might as well try something new," said Glen Libby, a fisherman from Port Clyde.

Not everyone is thrilled with the new plan, though.

Jim Kendall, a former New England Fishery Management Council member from New Bedford, Mass., called it false hope for the industry.

"When a man is overboard and drowning, he'll reach for anything you throw him, and I think you're throwing him an anchor," Kendall said.

Libby and Kendall were among the 200 fishermen, conservationists and others who filled a conference room at the Holiday Inn by the Bay as members of the fishery council labored over details of the new management system Wednesday.

The council is scheduled to finish its four-day meeting here today.

The new rules, if approved, would go into effect for the fishing year that begins next May. Under the proposal, groups of fishing boats called sectors would be allowed to catch certain amounts of cod, haddock, flounder and other so-called groundfish. Those catch shares would be based on fish population estimates, as well as the past catches of the boats in each sector.

Fishermen who choose to join sectors would no longer be held to other catch limits or limits on fishing days -- now just 39 days a year for a typical boat. Fishermen who don't join sectors likely would face even fewer days at sea next year.

Belonging to sectors will carry some additional costs, especially hiring people to monitor how much fish each boat catches. But many fishermen hope the more flexible sector system will make them more efficient and more profitable.

"I think we're going to be better off with sectors, as long as the costs of monitoring don't run us out of business," said Port Clyde resident Gary Libby, Glen's brother. They are part of a group of about 25 Maine fishing boats that hopes to make up a sector based in Port Clyde.

"There's a lot of unknowns here, but we got to put something in place to find out" the answers, Gary Libby said.

Fishermen don't yet know how much fish they would be allowed to catch under the sector system. And although the new approach might be the best hope for the long term, it won't mean there are more fish to catch in the near future, officials said.

"Everybody is going to be restricted under this because the amount of fish is too low," said George Lapointe, commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources. "There are a lot of risks inherent in this, but we know the risks of staying where we are."

Many conservation groups also support the new approach. It should finally set firm limits on the number of fish caught each year, and at the same time help fishermen stay in business until the fish populations rebound, said Sean Mahoney of the Conservation Law Foundation in Portland.

Moving away from catch limits on each fishing trip should also reduce the discarding of fish, conservation advocates say.

But there are those who say the system could backfire.

"The concept of sectors is great," said Gib Brogan, a Boston-based representative of Oceana. But, he said, "there are significant loopholes that need to be addressed."

Without adequate monitoring, he said, fishermen might still discard dead fish when their sector nears the limit for that species.

Dave Marciano, a fisherman from Gloucester, Mass., said the costs of monitoring will be too high.

"Sectors is a death sentence for me and my family," he said. "You're not going to be a viable business."