The Environmental Defense Fund has issued the following statement on the New England Fisheries Management Council vote to reverse its November decision. Statement by EDF's New England Oceans Program director Julie Wormser on the New England Fisheries Management Council decision to revise its recommendation on scallops:
Yesterday the New England Council voted to increase the 2010 harvest rate for sea scallops, increasing expected revenues for fishermen and their families by $40 million, which will assist fishing families through a continued tough recession.
The council voted in November for a lower fishing limit, seeking to balance the needs of scallopers and groundfishermen to access a mutually limiting resource — yellowtail flounder — and to meet a legal mandate to protect endangered sea turtles.
Yesterday's vote to increase harvest levels was made possible after groundfishermen and scallopers worked out a compromise which allowed scallopers to access more yellowtail flounder in 2010.
Unfortunately, the contentious and difficult process by which the council revisited this decision was awful and should not happen again. Fishery management must be based on the best possible information and developed through a public process. I support the council's commitment to develop proposed criteria and processes so that this kind of process breakdown doesn't happen again.