Supposedly, the intent of fishing regulations is to preserve a resource — to establish limits on the number of fish caught today so there will still be fish to catch on all the tomorrows to come.
The aim is — or ought to be — to maintain a sustainable fishery. And that also means a system that’s viable for the livelihood of commercial fishermen, the seafood industry and fishing communities — like ours.
Yet there continue to be signs that the National Marine Fisheries Service — the federal agency charged with regulating the fishery — seems bent more on putting fishermen out of business than on maintaining the fishery. And now there are even more signs that’s the case within the scientific research used to formulate the regulations in the first place.