Until NMFS gets its data collection in order, until there is some assurance catch limits are based on valid, independent marine science, until federal officials come clean with independent reports regarding the success — or lack of it — in other fisheries and countries, New England’s fishermen cannot not be forced into a falsified regulatory scheme that merely represents our own government’s latest attempt to shove them right out of business.
When members of the New England Fishery Management Council gather for a three-day meeting beginning today in Plymouth, they will be looking forward toward 2010, a potential landmark year for the region’s fishery and fishermen.
But they should also be looking back on some of the issues that have surfaced since June, when — in a meeting in Portland — they gave their approval to converting the fishing regulatory system to one based on fishermen’s "catch shares," a format being pushed hard by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief Jane Lubchenco, by the Obama administration, and by Lubchenco’s former colleagues and kindred spirits — the Pew Environmental Group, where the new NOAA chief was a Pew fellow, and the Environmental Defense Fund, where she formerly served on the board.
Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.
Please note, the Environmental Defense Fund maintains that its position on investment in fisheries as reported last July was misunderstood. Their clarification was published here last July. See "EDF asserts their Intentions have been misunderstood"