Frank Mirarchi’s capsule history of New England fishery management ("Half a century of fishing," June 2) skipped one episode that is particularly important to remember as we prepare to shift from days-at-sea and other input controls to catch shares.
The New England Fishery Management Council tried catch quotas immediately after it was organized in 1977. By 1982 the council and the New England fishing industry were so frustrated with quota-related problems that they abandoned catch quotas and spent the next 10 years developing the input controls that have now proven to be similarly troublesome.
I share Mirarchi’s belief that catch shares have the potential to tame overfishing while allowing fishermen to operate more profitably. Catch shares have proven that potential in places where they have been allocated to individual fishing businesses.