June 3, 2014 — Sometimes we don't get things completely right and that's a bit unnerving on this end because our job is to get things completely right. But sometimes we don't.
Case in point: Last week I wrote a story about NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service imposing severe restrictions in a portion of the Gulf of Maine offshore herring fishery _ and area called 1B _ because 92 percent of the total allowable catch for this area already had been caught. You can see the story by clicking here.
I mentioned the restrictions. I mentioned the most recent NOAA stats on cumulative catch. I even included a description of the geographic size of the Atlantic herring fishery. I talked to NOAA and got a quote. I alluded to it being yet another piece of bad news for Northeast commercial fishermen.
All good, that. All accurate, that.
But here's where I dropped the rock (and thanks to public affairs officer Pat Fiorelli and herring plan coordinator Lori Steele from the New England Fishery Management Council for pointing this out, and nicely, I might add, without once applying the term "incompetent bonehead"):
I failed to provide the proper perspective, which usually means I failed to ask the right question, which is exactly what happened here. I failed to ask what percentage of the fishery's total catch comes out of Area 1B. Seems like a natural question, doesn't it.
It is and I'm a dope for not asking it.
So, here's the skinny: Area 1B, with a quota of 3,000 metric tons, accounts for only 2.8 percent of the total herring quota of 107,000 metric tons.
Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times