May 1, 2014 — Last Thursday, the Center for Sustainable Fisheries was generously given the opportunity to address the NEFMC regarding its proposal. CSF believes that it began an important discussion about increasing collaborative research projects in the future.
Thank you for the report on the Center for Sustainable Fisheries' proposal that the New England Fisheries Management Council and National Marine Fisheries Service implement an intensive, industry-based, collaborative sampling program focusing on increasing data collection and reducing stock-assessment uncertainty ("Fishery council declines yellowtail proposal," April 26).
Last Thursday, CSF was generously given the opportunity to address the NEFMC regarding its proposal. CSF believes that it began an important discussion about increasing collaborative research projects in the future. The proposal was not voted on, but a robust and interesting discussion about the potential to implement a collaborative research program did occur. In general, council members were receptive to increasing data collection and creating an ongoing collaborative research program in the Northeast. Several relevant and important questions did arise. CSF believes the discussion to have been a positive, first step to develop an ongoing collaborative research project.
CSF is advocating for a program that helps to gain more knowledge about fish stocks, particularly George's Bank yellowtail flounder, while ensuring fish populations are maintained at healthy levels. At present, to help reduce uncertainty in the yellowtail assessments, NMFS is undergoing a new empirical approach to actually examine the fundamental yellowtail data. This is a step in the right direction. CSF believes that the empirical approach would benefit to a considerable degree by the implementation of a collaborative, industry-based sampling project.
Read the full opinion piece at the New Bedford Standard-Times