# Turn 3 — Capacity before claims

Merehaven has earned a useful lesson: we can preserve more fish when we truly have more racks and dry fuel, and not merely when we want a larger catch. The next stronger part of the run may feed us well, but it can also turn a fair disagreement into a contest over who controls the landing. This month, preservation capacity, clean water, and safe boats remain the conditions for fishing—not rewards distributed after it.

## Review and renew only what is needed

At the next full-moon gathering, the six work groups will first review the Spring Stewardship Council before it acts again. Each group may keep or replace its representative. We will renew it for one further moon only if the gathering agrees that common fuel, rescue cordage, preserved fish, and voluntary shared labor still need a public coordinating body during the run. Its mandate remains narrow: publish the tally, hear a specific proposal, and arrange agreed common work. It has no claim over household boats, nets, vessels, or stores, and it cannot turn a customary fishing site into private property.

For each decision that asks more of a crew or household, the council must announce: the material or labor requested, why it is needed, how long the request lasts, who checks the result, and what remains protected. Luma, Eska, Varo, and boat captains continue to stop unsafe work in their established fields, with their reasons reported at the next gathering. I will make sure those who carry the fishing and fuel burdens can speak before the tally is treated as a verdict.

## Fish only at demonstrated capacity

Varo keeps the fuel account with the warmth, cooking, and emergency reserve plainly set apart. The covered wet-wood store is checked after rain and wind; the people assigned to it keep it raised, covered, and separated from the water approaches. It is a future reserve until Varo judges a particular portion genuinely dry enough to use. We will not count the same wood once as a promise and again as smoking fuel.

Before a higher fishing day, Varo and Eska will state at the mat the actual rack space, handling labor, and dry fuel available for that day. Toren or his chosen net representative may join them in checking the proposed capacity and explain the crews' practical needs. If they agree there is more real capacity, the acceptance cap rises by that amount. If they do not, the crews fish only to the existing accepted amount plus ordinary meals. This gives Toren's people a respected route to challenge a limit with evidence, rather than a reason to evade it.

Each boat's landing stays counted until processed. The day’s accepted fish is assigned openly among workers' meals, household need, and the common reserve according to the existing public practice, with any change announced before the work begins. No senior claim to a deep-water site becomes a claim to every inlet or to fish that the whole village helped preserve. If spoilage begins, a rack fails, the usable fuel drops toward the protected reserve, or weather makes return unsafe, the responsible captain, Varo, or Eska stops the relevant work immediately.

## Keep water and the harmed inlet separate from rivalry

Luma maintains the clean seep approach, closes cloudy draws with a named alternative, and keeps fish waste, net washing, and fuel storage away from all water points. This work is not optional when the catch is good; it is how we avoid converting a food gain into illness.

The cut-stake entry remains locally closed to nets and fish cleaning. Neri, a water observer, and a net worker continue the calm-day comparison with nearby water and record the same observations: juveniles, disturbed ground, stakes or fiber, water condition, and signs of people or boats. They report both changes and uncertainty. No one names a culprit, takes gear, expands the closure, or treats the local pattern as proof of a lake-wide cause without new evidence.

When a safe same-day trip and an invitation permit, Cal and a council witness may carry a concise reciprocal report to Rushhook: our repeated observations at the damaged entry, the fact that it remains a local precaution, and the present timing of fish near Merehaven. They may ask what Rushhook is seeing near the outlet and whether its fishers have observed similar disturbed shallows. They offer no fishing limit, access, labor, fuel, or pledge on Merehaven's behalf. If Rushhook offers a proposal, the delegation brings it home unchanged for the gathering.

## Make boatcare a shared skill

For this moon, Cal is recognized as **boatcare coordinator**, accountable to the boat crews and reporting the same inventory at the council mat. This is a teaching and safety charge, not authority over household boats or captains. With each customary crew, he will keep the completed boat inventory current; continue pre- and post-trip hull, lashing, paddle, and bailer checks; and have the younger observers take part in ordinary maintenance under experienced hands. Captains still decide whether conditions are safe to launch or return.

Cal, Eska, and the regular crews will turn the inspection of the secured damaged boat into a practical repair list: each needed material, whether it is locally familiar, its competing use, and which repair steps current workers can teach. They will also identify the most common small failures in working boats and which spares or safe repairs would prevent them. The report lets the next gathering choose between repairing the reserve boat, reserving material for it, or delaying it—without confusing a desired fleet with a capacity we do not yet possess.

No new specialized craft is begun this month. No rescue cordage is used for ordinary improvement. If a working boat needs a minor, safe repair, its crew and Cal may make it using ordinary crew materials or voluntarily offered material, reporting what was used. If a repair would draw from rack, shelter, or rescue needs, it waits for public review. By teaching checks and repairs across several crews now, we prepare for a future fishing boat or patrol/rescue craft that is maintained by Merehaven rather than dependent on one person.

I will attend the capacity review, the council renewal, and the first boatcare report; otherwise I will leave skilled decisions with their keepers, hear grievances before they harden, and report plainly what we know, what we do not, and who is responsible for the next decision.