September 11, 2013 — Above all, however, the report makes the most profound, scientifically-based case yet for reforming the federal Magnuson Stevens Act and providing fishermen the flexibility they need — and that most state and coastal federal lawmakers have argued now for years.
Last week’s report from the National Research Council — a wing of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences — is being spun by NOAA officials and the giant green nonprofits as showing that the agency’s steps toward rebuilding many fish stocks have proven successful.
And the report indeed finds that 43 percent of the stocks initially categorized as being “overfished” are in full or partial recovery — thanks, of course, to the fact that Gloucester’s, New England’s and America’s fishermen have, for years now, abided by federal rules.
But those figures should hardly be seen as justification for the 78 percent cod limit cuts and the other dramatic landing reductions that have led fishermen to put their boats and/or houses up for sale this summer, while spending far more time on the dock than working, as they always had, to harvest one of our primary sources of protein from the sea. Indeed, the rebuilding of stocks should make the case for further easing limits on many stocks that have shown recovery.
Read the full editorial at the Gloucester Daily Times