May 25, 2012 – Alison Fairbrother of the Public Trust Project recently interviewed the ASMFC commissioners on their positions on a 10-year rebuilding timeframe for Atlantic menhaden. The results were published on the Public Trust Project's webpage. An excerpt is below.
Doug Grout, New Hampshire
Interview
“We were mostly in favor of the three and five. One year is the status quo – if they didn’t chose 3, 5, or 10, wouldn’t they have to implement in one year? These are just options to go out to public hearing. So you won’t have a state’s position with this vote, we’re just putting in options. My viewpoint is you put in a wide a range of options.”
Mark Gibson, Rhode Island
Interview
“One year was too aggressive a policy given the potential impacts to industry. Ten years is too long for me as well. All that is going to be out for public hearing. We’ll see where it ends up. I support moving very quickly but not to do it all in one year. We don’t think we can engage the regulatory process at home that quickly. Fishery is going to open tomorrow — the purse seine bait fishery in Narragansett Bay. We have a close relationship with the industry and their spotter pilots, we have a spotter pilot in our own employ, so we have detailed information corroborated by staff, as to when a threshold of 2 million pounds is reached [Editor’s Note: Rhode Island doesn’t open its commercial menhaden fishery until 2 million pounds of menhaden have entered Narragansett Bay.] We open and close the fishery at a moment’s notice, and we try to maintain a minimum biomass in the Bay. We think we’re way ahead of all states in that regard. We don’t want to see our advanced management program undercut by an aggressive management action.”
David Pierce, Massachusetts
ASMFC Meeting Testimony
“It looks stupid to go back to public comment with the same suite of options. It looks stupid. 3 and 5 makes sense. It’s very sensitive to public comment that we received and it’s a responsible time period for us to look at. We’re not bound by any particulars of the Magnuson Act. If things go wrong relative to rebuilding, we’re not obliged to suddenly cut fishing down to zero. I oppose the motion and support 3, 5 years. It limits the work of our Technical team and gives the public a clear indication that we listen to what is said at public hearings and we’ve acted.”
Read the full article at the Public Trust Project.