BANGOR, ME (March 16, 2009) – Government regulators are proposing a new set of fishing rules designed to protect and rebuild declining fish stocks in the North Atlantic. If approved they’ll go into effect May 1st. As part of a collaboration with Northeast stations, Rhode Island Public Radio’s Megan Hall reports some fishermen say the restrictions would cripple their industry.
Early one morning fisherman Chris Brown stands on the deck of his 54-foot trawler next to a dock in Galilee, Rhode Island. He’s wearing orange waterproof overalls and pulling large buckets of fish out of the bottom of the boat. Brown’s spent the past three days south of Block Island catching different types of groundfish, including yellow-tail flounder and cod, the type of fish he wouldn’t be able to catch under a proposed new set of fishing rules.
Listen to the Maine Public Broadcasting Network story in full