New fishing regulations designed to revive New England’s once plentiful cod and flounder populations went into effect yesterday, but many fishermen greeted the extensive overhaul with a mixture of skepticism and resignation, saying it will essentially force them and related shore-line industries out of business.
The controversial new rules encourage boat owners to organize themselves into sectors that will be allocated a share of the annual quota for each imperiled species. Once a group exceeds its limit on a particular kind of fish, members must cease fishing of any kind. Under the system, fishermen gain more freedom over how and when they do their jobs, but many expressed reservations about the lower number of fish they are now allowed to catch.
“This will destroy people’s livelihoods,’’ said Tim Barrett, a Plymouth fisherman who expects a 60 percent hit to his income because he says he is now allocated just 1,600 pounds of groundfish a year, compared with his usual annual haul of around 40,000 pounds. The allocation is determined by a permit holder’s catch history between 1996 and 2006.
Read the complete story at The Boston Globe.