You’ve got to hand it to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. While so many federal agencies seem to get nowhere fast, NOAA is working overtime to kill fishing as we know it. It is gutting the livelihoods of the nation’s coastal communities in the process.
NOAA’s activity is a juggling act, really, with four or more balls in the air at one time. There’s Amendment 17A, Amendment 17B and an interim red snapper closure. Amendment 16 just passed, along with establishment of Marine Protected Areas off our coast.
While the specifics of these regulatory spasms are too complicated to reiterate here, suffice to say that they will conspire to end commercial and recreational bottom-fishing in the United States.
But simply closing down most of the fishing apparently isn’t enough.
Now the NOAA wants to control what’s left – and who gets it.