NEW BEDFORD, MA (October 10, 2008) – Our fisheries management system is wasteful. The regulations actually force fishermen to throw overboard huge quantities of valuable fish. Last year, because of regulations, more than 50 percent of the cod that were caught had to be thrown back dead. This is a sin, particularly given the financial condition of the fishing industry and the need to conserve our stocks.
We have all read over the past decade that the fishing industry is in trouble financially and that the vessels will be out of business if the system doesn't change immediately, but we have had a huge reduction in our fleet from 1,000 vessels to 575 vessels in the last 15 years. During the same period, landings of groundfish have been well below 50 percent, but the reduction was done gradually, and fishermen, being very creative, did what they had to do to adjust to the cuts. And now we are anticipating further cuts that this time are certain to cripple the economic structure of the Massachusetts groundfish fisheries.
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