April 28, 2016 — In any relationship, uncertainty and mistrust tend to circle back and magnify themselves over time. In the case of New England fishermen and federal regulators, the result is what we see today. These two parties — who can and should be working together to ensure the economic and environmental health of our fisheries — are deadlocked in mistrust while the fishing industry lurches between federal bailouts and major criminal busts.
As fishing industry leaders with a combined seven-plus decades on the water, we know it doesn’t have to be this way.
A far more promising fisheries future is unfolding today in Alaska and, increasingly, on the West Coast. Its watchword is “accountability.” It is based on the straightforward idea that fishermen need to keep track of their catch, both the fish they bring to the dock and any unwanted “bycatch” they may discard at sea.
Why? Because in the absence of comprehensive catch monitoring, there is no basis upon which fishermen and scientists can establish a productive level of trust and cooperation. This means that fishery managers often assume the worst when they estimate fish stocks and are required, under federal law, to take very conservative approaches in order to account for that uncertainty when they set catch limits and allocations. Completing the negative feedback loop, fishermen interpret low allocations as bad science and the cycle of mistrust rolls on.