With any luck, the lawsuit filed Sunday against federal fishing regulators will put some objective eyes on the issue at last. The he-said she-said on Amendment 16, the new rules that went into effect May 1, has been a nightmare for any objective observer to wade through.
My fear, honestly, is that we won’t know who is right until it’s too late. Will half the fishing fleet be out of business in six months, as fishing interests have warned? That’s a serious doomsday prediction. Will most of the belly-up boats belong to small operators? Worse still.
On the flip side — the environmental side – will failure to implement the new rules leave some seafood species on a crash course with extinction?
Read this SouthCoastToday blog in full