November 24, 2014 — A battle is raging in the fishing industry, pitting conservation efforts against jobs.
New England’s quintessential fish, the cod, is in trouble. In centuries past, cod were said to be so abundant in Atlantic waters that one could almost walk across the ocean on their backs. Today, stocks are much lower, leading the agencies that regulate commercial fishing to drastically limit the amount of cod that can be caught. This week, in response to a report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association showing further drops in the cod population, the New England Fishery Management Council slashed the total allowable catch per fishing boat by 75 percent for 2015.
This comes on top of a fisheries management system, initiated in 2010, called “catch share management,” which narrows the rationing for a total allowable catch to individual fishermen. The cuts continue to frustrate fishermen, especially from smaller operations, some of whom claim NOAA’s science is wrong on fish populations, especially cod. Others feel the regulations sent down by the federal government give larger, more industrial fishing operations the upper hand.
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