BOSTON — Rulemakers who protect the fish off New England's crooked coastline are considering ways to make sure the small-boat fishermen who chase those fish don't vanish in the meantime.
The New England Fishery Management Council is beginning to devise so-called "accumulation limits" to restrict what any single fisherman or fishing business can haul home annually.
The idea is to keep the wealthiest fishing interests from accumulating such a dominant share of the catch that they swallow the small, independent boat owners who've sustained New England's fishing communities for centuries.
This persistent industry fear heightened last year, when a new management system was installed that allots each fisherman a transferrable share of the total catch, which they can lease or sell. Some say that makes it far easier for well-moneyed fishing interests to accrue catch shares from smaller, less profitable fishing businesses.
Read the complete story by Jay Lindsay of the AP at The Huffington Post.