Accepting millions of dollars from the nonprofit National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to help New England fishery officials and others implement a system based on fishermen’s "catch shares" raises all sorts of red flags. The money behind and National Fish and Wildlife Foundation comes in part from major oil companies and other corporations that may have their own agenda when it comes to harvesting the oceans.
Longtime Gloucester fisherman Joe Orlando, captain of the F/V Padre Pio, fears there is a "hidden agenda" within the entire move to replace the days-at-sea regulations with catch shares — which may parallel a system in which fishing rights and limits could be bought and sold. He and others worry that Big Oil interests could gain more control over the fisheries management — perhaps even buying up fishing rights to open more fishing grounds for drilling areas.
Sound like a conspiracy theory? Maybe, but it’s a theory fueled by the questionable marine science NOAA and NMFS have used to regulate fishermen to the brink of insolvency to date. Nils Stolpe, an industry consultant and a columnist for National Fisherman, argues that "natural resource management is, or should be, a government function — (and) funding it is, or should be, a government function as well. Ceding that responsibility to the private sector is a breech of the public trust."