A Congressional hearing in Boston last month did little to clear up an ocean of mistrust between New England fishermen and their federal regulators. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, whose officers were once overly aggressive in fining fishermen and seizing their assets, has much to do to rebuild its credibility.
Massachusetts Senators Scott Brown and John Kerry, along with the House delegation led by Barney Frank and John Tierney, who have coastal districts, have been strong voices for federal accountability. They need to work closely with both the fishing industry and federal regulators to resolve disputes about both the extent of fishing limits and federal enforcement. But a bill filed by Brown and New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte would go too far toward striking down an evolving “catch share’’ program of administering the ground-fishing limits. Despite some problems in its implementation, catch share promises to be the fairest way to enforce limits that won’t disappear under any scenario.
Everyone agrees that there were too many regulations in the past, and they were over-enforced. But fishermen note that no one publicly paid the price for a system that rewarded regulators for aggressive enforcement by allowing their agency to keep seized assets. More than $600,000 in fines were returned to fishermen, but NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco says privacy rules prevent her from revealing any disciplinary actions. Meanwhile, the asset forfeiture program remains in place, though the rules governing it have changed.
Some fishermen have redirected their anger toward catch share, the new system that divides them into sectors, based on their location or equipment, and sets overall catch limits within each of the sectors for different ground-fish types. This promises to eliminate such egregious problems as individual fishing boats dumping excess catch overboard, just to stay within regulations.
Read the complete editorial from The Boston Globe