New England fishing leaders express deep concern over preliminary NMFS recommendations, which could represent "a cut of 67 percent from last year’s pollock catch".
If industry leaders are correct, the limits could imperil the Obama Administration’s highly-touted plans to move the industry to management by "Catch Shares".
According to the Monday story by Patrick Anderson "Sector fishery cooperatives, the linchpin of federal plans to protect wild fish stocks in New England, could collapse under new catch restrictions for one of the ocean’s more unpredictable species."
According to today’s editorial "Gloucester’s Vito Giacalone — who, as policy chief of the Northeast Seafood Coalition, has tried to work with government officials to ease the transition to the catch shares format — says the 67% figure will simply ‘break the system.’ Raymond Canastra, co-owner of the Whaling City Seafood Auction in New Bedford, says the NMFS’ pollock limits would be "the death knell" for many fishing boats."
The Times also noted that "a May review of existing research data and the findings of boat captains done by UMass-Dartmouth’s School of Marine Science and Technology found the science on which NMFS’ current regulatory Interim Rule is based to be ‘costly and misleading.’ That report, produced in conjunction with Gov. Deval Patrick’s office and the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, found NMFS’ assessment of winter flounder hopelessly flawed because the research apparently didn’t account for that fish’s swimming habits."
Read the story by Patrick Anderson.
Read the editorial.