“Fishermen risk their lives every time they leave the docks,” Tina Jackson, president of the American Alliance of Fishermen and their Communities (AAFC), said to her audience, an experienced group of Galilee fishermen who are fighting national regulations in an attempt to save not only their individual businesses, but the industry of fishing itself. The AAFC held a meeting Thursday, June 24, in Galilee to discuss the lawsuit pertaining to Amendment 16, a fisheries management plan, and the proposed shut-down of the lobster industry, among other issues. On May 1, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries Service placed new limitations on the total amount on each type of fish that fisherman can catch. Sector Allocation, the newest method of achieving this goal, determines fishery limits by an average of each participating vessel’s catch history over a certain amount of years. With these regulations, the service aims to restore fishery population. Galilee fishermen, however, dispute that the seas are overfished.
“What I see going on is not conservation,” Jackson said, voicing that she believes regulations put on local fishing industries serves an an eradication effect and is a premeditation to put a large portion of the fishing fleet out of business.
Overfishing hasn’t occurred in 15 years in this country, Jackson said, and the information backing regulations has been “poor science” on NOAA’s part. She said the industry proves their findings wrong year after year.
“We are not in decline in our fishing stock,” Jackson said Wednesday, “we haven’t been for years.” There’s actually been a rise in stock assessments, she said, because older regulations have prohibited overfishing.
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