The fishing industry and a group of New England lawmakers are trying toease the tight catch limits saddling American boats by bolstering alongstanding but now tenuous Georges Bank fishing agreement between theUnited States and Canada.
A bill filed last week by U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe,R-Maine, would amend American fisheries law and carve out an exemptionfrom rigid rebuilding targets for three species on Georges Bank fishedand managed by both nations.
The American laws, which call for U.S. stocks to betotally rebuilt by 2014, are much stricter than those in Canada, whichlack an aggressive, fixed timeline.
But because cod, haddock and flounder don’t respectnational boundaries, the two nations have been working together tomanage those three species on Georges Bank, which stretches northeastfrom the waters off of Nantucket toward Nova Scotia.