The National Marine Fisheries Service yesterday announced New England groundfishery regulations for the next year that are less drastic than a preliminary proposal but still are calculated to cost the industry 9 percent of its revenue.
Dropped from the draft that was published in January for comments — mostly negative — was a virtual ban on commercial fishing within a huge swath of waters along New England’s southern coast, from Long Island, N.Y., to deep into Georges Bank.
Also dropped was a proposal that would have more than quadrupled the area in the Gulf of Maine where one day’s fishing counts for two against a fishermen’s license. The abandoned idea would have spread the inshore two-days-for-one area far into the gulf.
NMFS had been put on notice by U.S. senators and representatives from New England that implementing the initial package would have triggered a congressional nullification campaign, and driven NMFS’ standing with its stakeholders even lower.
Instead, the Interim Rule announced yesterday by Jane Lubchenco — the new head of NMFS’ parent agency, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration — cuts fishing days at sea on federal permits by 18 percent and charges a day of fishing as two throughout southern New England waters. The revised rule, due to take effect May 1, also mandates no landings of winter flounder, the stock singled out for protection in the earlier proposed closing of the southern waters. But it backs off the tighter NMFS limits.
Immediate reaction was generally positive. But in the aftermath of the publication of a 127-page regulatory package without the environmental impact statement or detailed breakdowns of projected economic impacts, appreciation for the improvements were guarded and nuanced.
Read the story in the Gloucester Times