The future of New England's scallop fishery — America's most profitable seafood stock — is squarely on the line tomorrow when the New England Fishery Management takes up the scallop catch limit as part of its three-day monthly meeting in Portsmouth, N.H.
Will the council ease the limits to those that would, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's own science statistics, allow for an economically viable catch and a sustainable stock?
That science, after all, has found that there are 300 million "harvestable" pounds of scallops, and that the stock would not be endangered by a take of 65 million pounds.
Or will the council stick to its heavy-handed, job-killing guns and keep the limit where it now stands — at 47 million pounds. That would, by many estimates, deal at least a $40 million blow to New England's seafood economy — and an unnecessary one at that.
The council's initial vote to cut to that level came on a 10-7 margin. And we'd like to think that, through the ensuing debate, enough council members will see the absurdity of the initial action.
Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.