NEW BEDFORD, MA (January 16, 2009) – Why implement new fishing restrictions that even environmentalists don’t support? That was our burning question when federal regulators announced a set of interim rules this week meant to last until May 2010. With the viability of New Bedford’s fishing industry at stake, we figured the nonfishing public would be wondering, too.
One answer, it seems, may be bureaucracy and inflexible thinking.
To a federal spokeswoman, the issue is black and white: America’s mammoth fisheries law, the Magnuson-Stevens Act, requires most of New England’s fish stocks to reach certain levels by 2014, said Maggie Mooney-Seus of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Service. Therefore, when new data out last summer showed that several species were not recovering as well as previously thought, quick action was required to comply with the law.
Read the SouthCoastToday.com editorial in full