NEW BEDFORD, Mass. – August 6, 2010 – Writing in "[w]ith great respect and in the spirit of a true partnership" New Bedford, Massachusetts mayor Scott Lang told Commerce Secretary Gary Locke that his recent letter to the Mayor reinforced Mr. Lang's belief that NOAA's "catch share program was put in place prematurely, without the planning, analysis, and exploration of alternatives commonly required in major federal actions."
Mayor Lang said "shortfalls in planning are already generating unfair treatment, job loss, welfare costs, and resource waste, and pointed out that "added costs, and job loss are not acceptable in these troubled economic times."
The Mayor is critical of the Commerce Secretary's suggestion that evidence suggesting that this year's catch is on par with last year's is evidence of success of catch shares."
You state the catch this year is on par with the catch last year. But the Gloucester Daily Times reported that “Over the first 21 percent of the fishing season — May 1 through July 17 — the part of the fleet organized into sectors had landed only 6.5 percent of what it was allocated to catch for the year in the mixed groundfish stock complex.” However, even if this season’s landings matches last year’s catch for this time frame, this is hardly a success when we realize that last years catch was only about 20% of the TAC available last year. It seems clear that catch shares this year are performing no better than days-at-sea did last year."
Referencing the Secretary's recent announcement of a six-fold increase in the Pollock allocation, the mayor asked why "with the obvious importance of pollock was it not subject to the same scientific assessment that revealed it was six times more abundant than originally thought before the initiation of the catch share program?"
The mayor argued that "catch shares never should have not been implemented without current stock assessments being ready," cited problems with the skate assessment, also noted that the Secretary's "reference to dogfish and red crab limits do not support NOAA’s assessment capabilities."
The mayor noted that "good public policy would require forecasts of the performance of the program before it is promulgated".
He urged that any proposed buyback program "be carefully thought out and implemented with precision" noting that "otherwise dire unintended economic and social harm will be the end result".
Finally, he thanked the Secretary for his support of cooperative research programs.
Read the mayor's letter in its entirety.