"Stellwagen is the bread and butter of the small day-boat fleet in Gloucester," said Jackie Odell, executive director of the Gloucester-based Northeast Seafood Coalition, the region's largest industry group.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration regulates fishing in and outside the sanctuary, which rests within the 200-mile U.S. exclusive economic zone. And the New England Fishery Management Council is in the midst of a comprehensive review and reform of the closed areas, where fishing is barred, that will include MacDonald's still-secret plan.
The review of closed areas notably includes the Western Gulf of Maine Closed Area, a thin, vertical rectangle on either side of Cape Ann, and multiple set-asides amounting to 6,300 square miles — or nearly one-third — of Georges Bank. It is mandated statutorily and had been greeted with hope by the fishing communities.
The closed areas were originally put in place to help manage fishing effort under the days-at-sea system. But now that fishing is largely converted to a system in which most boats work with "catch shares" of an guaranteed allocation, the rationale for closed areas is no longer clear, Odell said in a telephone interview.
The Stellwagen Sanctuary Advisory Committee meets in Dedham on Sept. 14.
Read the complete story from The Gloucester Times