What the fishing community and the public need to ask is whether they would rather have the scientists and the regulators make a mistake by leaving too many fish in the water or make a mistake by allowing too many fish to be caught. In the first case the fish are still growing and reproducing, making more fish for next year. In the second case, one year’s excessive catch leads to less fish production the next year and the next.
One of the common threads that runs through articles and letters about the fishing industry is that there are plenty of fish but the regulators won’t let fishermen catch them. Sam Frontiero (Letters, the Times, Wednesday, July 8) nailed the problem facing both fishermen and regulators when he pointed out that "boats catch their quota in 10 minutes time — even less sometimes."
Frontiero and many fishermen contend that regulators should let fishermen catch more. But how much more? At what point would fishermen and their supporters be satisfied that they were being allowed to catch the right amount of fish? Would that level of catch be sustainable, or would it cause another cycle of fishery depletion?
Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.