June 11, 2015 — New England cod fishermen have been subject to increasingly restrictive catch limits in recent years as the famed Atlantic cod has struggled to recover from a history of overfishing in the Gulf of Maine and, now, warming waters that have forced the species northeast in search of more hospitable environs.
The catch limits agreed to by the New England Fishery Management Council are a key part of a 10-year plan to rebuild Atlantic cod stocks in the Gulf of Maine. And such 10-year rebuilding plans are a key mechanism used by the nation’s fisheries regulators to rescue overfished species from extinction.
But those 10-year plans are generating political conflict in Washington, D.C., where the Republican-led U.S. House earlier this month passed an update to the nation’s four-decade old law regulating the nation’s fisheries, the Magnuson-Stevens Act. President Barack Obama is threatening a veto.
The bill’s proponents argue that the nation’s fisheries regulations need to allow for more flexibility — that aggressive, 10-year stock rebuilding plans often create unnecessary hardship in fishing communities and that the 10-year timeframe doesn’t make sense for every species in every region. Opponents argue that such aggressive rebuilding plans have spared multiple species from extinction, such as the black sea bass off the Southeastern U.S. coast and the Acadian redfish in the Gulf of Maine, allowing them to rebound and be fished once again.
Maine’s House members split on the bill: Republican Rep. Bruce Poliquin supported it; Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree voted no.
Read the full editorial from the Bangor Daily News