December 2, 2014 — Fisheries observer program achieves acceptance as boats make money and some species recover.
In a tribute to personal flexibility on all sides and good program design, the concept of physically stationing biologists aboard fishing vessels has achieved wide acceptance, while clearly playing a role in helping some imperiled species recover to healthy, fishable levels.
This isn’t all a feel-good situation. One deck boss faces charges for allegedly assaulting an observer at sea. Fishing can be a stressful, high-pressure business with perhaps a higher than usual percentage of participants who zealously guard their independence and perquisites. Even those committed to obeying the law may occasionally resent the presence of an outsider on deck.
Nor is the fisheries reform that the observers are linked with — catch shares — universally popular. These individual and group fishing quotas run under auspices of the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council have eliminated the old “derby” style fishing seasons for many deep-sea fish species. (The exciting scramble to catch as much as possible as soon as the season starts continues for Dungeness crab.)
Read the full opinion from The Daily Astorian