While any level of bycatch is unfortunate, the numbers show that Gloucester's and America's fishermen are, predictably, doing a better job than many had thought.
The news that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has released its first national report on bycatch — one of the most vexing issues in the New England fishery, or any other — finally sets a framework for dealing with the ongoing problem.
NOAA's inaugural bycatch report found that 17 percent of the fish caught commercially across the U.S. in 2005 — the last year for which data were apparently available — were wasted as bycatch.
In New England, the bycatch rate was better at 14 percent. While the study doesn't reflect this, one reason may be the use by more New Englanders of the so-called Ruhle Trawl, an innovative means of designing a trawl for haddock that allows non-targeted fish — notably cod — to escape.
But while a bycatch percent of zero remains the ideal, it's important to note that the New England mark is more than 30 percent lower than the alarmist figures that had been estimate by — of 22 percent — by green giants Oceana and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Read the complete editorial from The Gloucester Times