For too long, the National Marine Fisheries Service has turned a blind eye to New England’s coastal economy, ignoring its legislative mandate to balance ending overfishing and minimizing adverse economic impacts on fishing communities. The simple truth is that NMFS must increase catch limits on the "choke stocks" that are otherwise sure to close down this fishery prematurely.
I find it patently unacceptable that despite the admissions of NMFS’s own scientists that their data was insufficient to make policy recommendations for some stocks, other than a previously announced commitment to revisit the catch limit for pollock, we did not receive any assurances during our meeting that other choke stocks would be addressed.
As ranking member of the Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmospheres, Fisheries and Coast Guard, I recently joined a dozen other members of the New England congressional delegation in a meeting with Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to discuss the future of the New England groundfishery.
Specifically, my colleagues and I urged Locke, along with Dr. Jane Lubchenco, administrator of NOAA, and Eric Schwaab, director of NMFS, to exercise the secretarial authority granted by the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and implement emergency regulations to increase the 2010 annual catch limits for certain fish stocks in the groundfishery.
Fishermen deserve more than lip-service when their livelihoods are at stake.
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