NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — August 5, 2012 — Drastic cuts to allowable catch for the 2013 fishing year proposed Thursday are too much. Too much in light of the evidence that stock assessments are unreliable, and too much for struggling small boat owners to bear.
The news delivered by the New England Fishery Management Council in Portsmouth, N.H., brought a quick response from Sens. John Kerry and Scott Brown, and Reps. Barney Frank, John Tierney and William Keating, asking for immediate relief for the vulnerable members of the beleaguered industry in the Northeast.
It's not the first time congressmen have sought disaster relief for the fishermen, and they have in the past been vigorously joined in the request by New England governors.
If only the federal government would recognize what is so obvious to those who watch as the catch share system now in its second year squeezes out the small fry and consolidates the fleet into the hands of the few.
Fishermen have adapted with equipment and communication to avoid choke species, and the feds have responded again with broad-brush, high-impact decisions based on outdated models and dubious data.
It's a failure of the bureaucracy that allows reliance on an acknowledged weak system to drive policy — policy that will keep fishermen off the water when there are hundreds of millions of dollars in allowable quota left in the ocean each year.
The process is upside-down. To err on the side of caution, we would protect the fisherman, wouldn't we? They are the ones who have worked so hard with UMass scientists to keep the fisheries afloat this season.
Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard Times.
Read the letter to Secretary of Commerce Blank