March 28, 2012- Amid calls for better implementation of regulations and more flexibility, the Mayor's Ocean and Fisheries Council is considering ways to overcome the ongoing difficulties facing the groundfish industry.
"We need more flexibility in the law," said Dr. Brian Rothschild, of UMass Dartmouth's School for Marine Science and Technology, who chaired Tuesday's meeting at the Waterfront Grille.
"But we also need better implementation of the regulations," Rothschild said, lamenting the fact that the management system is such that fishermen bring in only a fraction of the catch they are allocated. Out of 140,000 tons of fish in the total allowable catch, only 32,000 are actually landed annually, he said.
Others at the meeting included former mayor Scott W. Lang, Jim Quigley from Rep. William Keating's office and David Pierce, deputy director of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries.
"Unfortunately, we're not matching our science capacity to our management strategy," said UMass Dartmouth's Steve Cadrin, who serves on the science and statistical committee of the New England Fishery Management Council. "There's going to be a new fishing crisis every year."
Since a comprehensive 2008 assessment of all groundfish stocks, there have been only "piecemeal" assessments done and catch limits are set every year without updated stock assessments, he said.
"So we're using five-year projections and the further out you get, the more uncertain they become," he said. Such projections do not provide a reliable basis for setting catch limits, according to Cadrin.
Read the full article at the New Bedford Standard Times.