BOSTON (AP) — January 4, 2012 — New England fishermen and federal data reports are telling the same story this year: The catch is way down.
Some fishermen, though, say it’s premature and dangerous to conclude with a third of the fishing year to go that fish have disappeared, or that pushing through huge quota cuts in 2013 won’t matter.
‘‘There was no fish this summer, practically anywhere,’’ acknowledged Maine fisherman Jim Odlin. But he and others said market forces help explain lower catches to date. And he said in four decades in the cyclical business, stocks he’s seen vanish one year come back in force the next, and no one knows why.
‘‘If you saw this for two or three years, then I would start to say something is going on, then I would be convinced,’’ he said. ‘‘But right now, I can’t tell you.’’
Read the full story by Jay Lindsay of the Associated Press in the Boston Globe