I would like to register my disappointment with The Journal’s Feb. 9 editorial on fishing, “Let science decide.” At the same time, I would like to invite your editorial board to visit M.F. Foley Fish, which my family owns, for an education on what is really going on in fishery management.
Foley Fish has been involved in fishery management since the early 1990s, much before it became marketable to claim “sustainability.” We serve on both the National Marine Fisheries Northeast Groundfish Advisory Panel and the Highly Migratory Species Panel. Our family has been in this business since 1906 and cares deeply about securing the natural resources of our oceans for generations to come. I would add that we have many multi-generational relationships with fishermen who have exactly the same thoughtful approach — very different from the picture your editorial board painted.
If your editorial board did its homework rather than regurgitating the misinformation spewed by nongovernment environmental organizations with their own agendas, they would realize that our fishing stocks have experienced an amazing rebound thanks to strict fishery-management measures.
Gulf of Maine cod is at a level not seen in 30 years. Georges Bank haddock is at a level we have never seen since the stock began being recorded. Scallops, too, have had an amazing rebound.
Read the complete opinion piece at The Providence Journal.