PORTLAND, Maine — More than 100 fishermen turned out for a public hearing at the Holiday Inn by the Bay on Monday night to express opposition to a proposed federal rule that would reduce quotas on Atlantic bluefin tuna catches.
Fishermen and a representative for U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, argued that the rule would penalize fishermen by automatically subtracting 160 tons from what they will be allowed to catch along the Eastern Seaboard in 2011.
That amount is an attempt by regulators to account for the bluefin tuna that are caught inadvertently by other fishermen, especially longliners. Those fish must be thrown overboard and left to die in the ocean.
With a cap of 858 tons this year, "this fishery is headed for a train wreck," said Chris Weiner, of Ogunquit, who hunts bluefin tuna with a harpoon off Perkins Cove. "You see a lot of scientists at the National Marine Fisheries Service trying to paint a bleak picture, but everyone knows there is a lot of bluefin tuna out there."
Read the complete story from The Portland Press Herald.