John Bullard, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Northeast office, said key fish populations are so weak, "draconian" cuts in catch are unavoidable.
BOSTON (AP) Jan. 25, 2013 – New England's top fishing regulator said Friday that crippling cuts in catch limits this year are unavoidable and they will devastate what remains of the region's once-flourishing fishing industry.
On Friday, John Bullard, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Northeast office, said key fish populations are so weak, "draconian" cuts in catch are unavoidable.
"The cuts will have devastating impacts on the fleet, and on families, and on ports," he told The Associated Press in an interview.
"That reality is here and we have to face it," Bullard said.
Bullard said failures by fishery managers are ultimately to blame for weak stocks that haven't rebounded.
"We set the rules and clearly the rules have failed," he said. "There's no other conclusion."
The fishery council's science committee is recommending catch reductions of 81 percent for cod in the Gulf of Maine, to 1,249 metric tons, and 61 percent for cod in Georges Banks, to 2,506 metric tons. As recently as 2003, fishermen caught about 8,000 metric tons of Gulf of Maine cod and about 12,000 metric tons of cod in Georges Bank.
New Hampshire fishermen Dave Goethel, a council member, said the recommend catch limits aren't "even remotely enough fish to make any of these boats viable businesses."
"We're not talking about, 'Oh yeah, we're going to have a tough year next year,'" Goethel said this earlier week. "We're talking about, you know, that's it.'"
Read the full Associated Press story by Jay Lindsay in the Washington Post