BOSTON, Mass. — July 14, 2013 — A plan to allow certain New England fishermen back into fishing grounds where they've long been banned was so objectionable to environmentalists that two groups sued to kill it months before it was officially released.
And after the proposal was unveiled last week, fishermen who once backed the idea called the plan a useless gesture that does nothing for their struggling industry.
None of the criticism surprises the Northeast’s top fishing regulator, John Bullard. But he says it doesn’t mean the proposal to reopen 3,000 square miles of Atlantic Ocean can’t work.
‘‘We recognize it’s probably not going to make anyone happy,’’ Bullard said. But, he added, ‘‘We think it’s a responsible way to make abundant stocks accessible to people.’’
The plan, released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is not yet in effect, pending a period of public comment.
It was devised after a December vote by regional regulators that gave fishermen permission to ask to work sections of previously forbidden fishing grounds. It details where fishermen can ask for access and the conditions under which it could be granted.
The closed areas, located in the Gulf of Maine and to the south and east of Cape Cod in Georges Bank, were off-limits as far back as 1994 to fishermen who target bottom-dwelling groundfish, such as cod and haddock. Regulators shut down the grounds to protect the fish and their nurseries.
But fishermen argued last year that the closures became obsolete in 2010 when regulators decided to instead try to protect groundfish with tough catch quotas.
They argued that with huge cuts in those quotas coming in 2013, it made sense to reopen at least some sections of the closed areas so fishermen could harvest the healthy fish species reportedly there, such as redfish and haddock.
Read the full story by Jay Lindsay from the Associated Press at Boston.com