Fisherman Luis Ribas is tired of watching “laws break laws.” He tells President Obama so in a letter describing the ways in which he thinks current groundfishing regulations violate the Magnuson Stevens Act.
A commercial draggerman for 32 years, Ribas recounts how catch limits and allowable days-at-sea vary for fishermen from port to port — a boat out of New Bedford, for example, is charged half the time a Provincetown boat is, and catch limits for cod and yellowtail flounder are also more lenient for New Bedford fishermen.
Such uneven regulations defy the law enacted in 1976 to manage and conserve U.S. fisheries, Ribas says. The Magnuson Stevens Act specifies that “if it becomes necessary to allocate or assign fishing privileges among various United States fishermen, such allocation shall be fair and equitable to all fishermen.”