New England’s fishing tradition — a centuries’ old system based onviewing the ocean and its creatures as public resources — seems almostcertain to be relegated to history’s discard pile this week.
To replace the old system, a fishing regulatory formatbased on "catch shares" is standing by for adoption as the centerpieceof today’s session of the June meeting of the New England FisheryManagement Council.
In replacing the old system of fishermen’s effortcontrols — with limits on accessible areas and fishermen’s days at sea— catch shares inevitably entail the determination by the government ofhow much fish may be caught in a fishery system.