August 6, 2015 — NOAA’s denial of the New England Fishery Management Council’s June request to suspend at-sea monitoring has satisfied environmental groups, but it serves as the latest example of their inappropriate and misguided influence in management of the Northeast fisheries.
The Management Council had asked the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for emergency relief, as the cost of at-sea monitoring shifted from the government to the fishermen, a $700-$800 cost per trip. Fishermen and regulators alike anticipate that it will make a more trips unprofitable.
NOAA Regional Administrator John K. Bullard responded July 30 by saying the criteria for suspending the program under emergency action was not met.
According to an Aug. 3 report in the Gloucester Daily Times by reporter Sean Horgan, the campaign manager for environmental organization Oceana, Gib Brogan, said, “Currently, only 24 percent of fishing trips in the fishery carry observers on board. This proposal would have dropped it even further, seriously jeopardizing any chances of recovery for this region.”
There is more than one problem with this approach.
Read the full editorial at the New Bedford Standard-Times