January 6, 2015 — Fishermen say access to Cashes Ledge will help them survive tight groundfishing regulations, but conservationists say the rare ecosystem should be left alone.
Roughly 100 miles off the coast of southern Maine, a hidden, mountainside forest that scientists describe as an ecological time machine offers glimpses of an abundance long lost on the New England coastline.
Schools of oversized cod and pollock congregate in Cashes Ledge, drawn to the food and shelter found in one of the largest, densest kelp forests in the world. Endangered North Atlantic right whales, humpback whales and various species of shark swim above, while sponges, sea stars and sea anemones form a brightly colored blanket on the bottom – all in an area largely off-limits to commercial fishermen.
Now a proposal to reopen part of the 500-square-mile area to groundfishing is reviving debate about how to balance conservation with attempts to keep New England’s historic groundfishing industry from becoming extinct. That debate will continue Tuesday and Wednesday as the New England Fishery Management Council holds public hearings in Brewer and Portland on the Cashes Ledge proposal and other potential changes to regional fishing regulations.
“It makes no sense whatsoever to allow the (gains) we have established over the past few years to be destroyed for a few boats,” said Greg Cunningham of the Conservation Law Foundation, a nonprofit that pressured regulators to create the refuge for cod and other struggling groundfish species in 2002. “The fish they are targeting there are readily available in other areas.”
Fishermen and members of the management council – the regional federal commission that regulates the industry – insist that the proposed changes still will protect the rare Cashes Ledge habitat while giving fishermen access to surrounding waters. The council is accepting public comment on the suite of proposed changes through Thursday.
“We are not opening up Cashes Ledge or Ammen Rock if this goes through,” Harpswell fisherman and council member Terry Alexander said in referring to the tallest peak of the cluster of submerged mountains. “All we are opening up is the deep water to the west of Cashes Ledge.”
Read the full story from the Portland Press Herald