October 1, 2013 — It’s obvious if you spend any time around the docks or shop regularly at a decent fish market that there have been dramatic changes in the domestic commercial fishing industry in the country and in the Northeast over the last ten years.
At the national level
The following chart on tilapia imports from 2003 (from the USDA) says most of what needs to be said. For reference I have also included our average annual per capita consumption of seafood. In the last decade the US population has in-creased by approximately 8%, per capita seafood consumption has decreased by 8%, and our seafood imports have increased 70%. We are currently importing over 90% of the seafood we consume.
But on the plus side the inflation corrected value of US seafood landings after a protracted decline starting in the late 70s has been increasing fairly steadily since 2002.
Closer to home
The inflation adjusted value of New England seafood landings in 2011 (the latest year for which commercial data were available) was the second highest since 1950. While good news to some fishermen, over half of that value was due to extraordinarily high production in just two fisheries.
In 2002, Northeast (from New Jersey to Maine) sea scallop landings were worth $143 million in inflation adjusted dollars. In 2011 they were worth $495 million. Lobster landings in the Northeast were worth $293 million in 2002 and $423 million in 2011. Minus these two fisheries, New England landings are about as low as they have ever been and are about to go lower. Without sea scallops, Mid-Atlantic landings are at their lowest point since 1950 (for more on this see http://www.aifrb.org/2013/07/fisheries-management-more-than-meets-the-eye/ ).
What happened?
A New England Fisheries Management Council press release issued on June 7, 2001stated “year 2000 calculations show that estimated biomass levels for 11 important groundfish stocks, collectively, have increased almost 2-1/2 times since 1994.” The release went on about this good news, rightfully giving credit for it to the fishermen for their sacrifices and their demands for better science.
Referring to that release in the FishNet piece Of blood and turnips (at http://www.fishingnj.org ), I wrote in 2002 “unfortunately this state of affairs…. has been anything but that (good news) to the ‘conservationists’…. they were successful in having language included in the Sustainable Fisheries Act that removed much needed flexibility from a fisheries management system that was struggling to maintain the economic viability of the fishing industry at the same time that it was struggling to rebuild and maintain the sustainability of the fish stocks it was managing. Based on the fruits of their successful – and exceedingly well-funded – lobbying efforts, a group of these same not-for-profits have now brought suit in Federal court to needlessly accelerate the groundfish rebuilding process by forcing unreasonable adherence to these rigid provisions of the Act.”