Now that the alarmist rhetoric concerning the biological status of fish stocks seems to have cooled, perhaps we can take up the long-overdue discussion of fishery economics. It will be economics that determines whether Gloucester and other ports thrive on the available fish or simply survive. Economists sometimes define their profession as the study of the allocation of scarce resources. That certainly describes our fisheries in recent years. Even with recovered stocks, however, we will need a system of allocating this scarce resource among competing users.
The Gloucester Daily Times editorial of Aug. 3 ("It’s time to loosen fishing limits rooted in past flawed science") repeats the common error of assuming that more boats and higher landings are always good for the economy of fishing ports.
In fact, over-expansion of the fishing industry can reduce the economic contribution of the industry to the local economy and threaten fish stocks.