The Senate delegations of Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island have a bipartisan message for federal fishery management regulators: use some common sense.
In a letter spearheaded by Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, the top Republican on the Senate commerce committee’s subcommittee on oceans, atmosphere, fisheries and Coast Guard, the senators tell a top regulator that the 15-month-old fishery management plan needs to be adjusted to give fishermen more predictability in how they manage their businesses and go about their harvesting practices.
Among what Snowe, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and the other New England senators tell Eric Schwab, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration assistant administrator for fisheries, is that regulators should examine ways to make the at-sea system for monitoring what fishermen harvest more affordable and to evaluate whether existing regulations remain “relevant and necessary” to protect the ocean’s resources and allow for more flexibility when possible.
Read the complete story from The Portland Press Herald.