HYANNIS, Mass. โ October 2, 2014 โ NOAA Fisheries Regional Administrator John Bullard has the Gulf of Maine cod crisis all to himself after the New England Regional Fisheries Council found no consensus and simply voted to ask him to just do something.
The council spent most of Wednesday morning hearing mostly criticism of the council's plan to sharply restrict cod fishing from Cape Cod Bay to Eastport, Maine, which would have the side effect of putting charter fishing boats out of business.
The council then spent three hours in the afternoon debating a motion to ask Bullard to take some specific actions, but eventually the motion failed in an 8-9 vote, with member John Quinn of Dartmouth voting 'no.'
Member Thomas Dempsey of Chatham scolded the council, saying that the failure to pass the motion was an "enormous mistake."
He said the council was abdicating, "handing control over to the agency."
When member Doug Grout of Durham, N.H., then made a motion simply asking Bullard to do something, without being specific, Bullard called it the worst of three proposals, but better than nothing. Grout and others argued that at least Bullard was in the room for the whole episode and now knows what the council wants, even if the council couldn't agree on the specifics.
Those who opposed the motion warned that it would do a lot of damage for very little return. The cod stocks would not be affected, they said, and meanwhile more permanent conservation measures would be written into the impending Framework 53 amendments to the management system.
Read the full story from the New Bedford Standard-Times