NEW BEDFORD, Mass.– June 30, 2014 — The new rule will require pound-for-pound payback if the combined catch total goes beyond the current year's quota. That means fishermen would lose a pound of quota for every pound of fish that exceeded their limit. NOAA on Friday issued a final rewriting of fishing quota carryover rules that were thrown out last spring in federal court.
The old rule stated that a certain percentage of a year's uncaught quota could be carried over into the next fishing year. It was seen as a safety valve to end the practice of going out in dangerous conditions just to beat the calendar and use up quota.
But environmentalists objected because that practice often caused the following year's total quota to exceed scientifically imposed limits.
The court agreed and said that carryover is only legal when the catch totals do not exceed the permissible levels.
The U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. voided the old rule on April 4, leaving a gap in the regulations.
The new rule will require pound-for-pound payback if the combined catch total goes beyond the current year's quota. That means fishermen would lose a pound of quota for every pound of fish that exceeded their limit.
Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard Times