February 19, 2013 — NOAA officials will no doubt portray that the lack of a 10-percent rollover shows the dire level of cod stocks. It shows no such thing, given the reliability of NOAA science that’s been proven laughably unereliable in the past.
It’s good to see that John Bullard, the Gloucester-based NOAA Northeast regional administrator, has agreed to extend a 10 percent carryover of uncaught fishing quota to the new fishing year for most species.
As Bullard noted, current federal fishery management regulations allow up to 10 percent of unused quota to be carried forward to another year, and that indeed “provides fishermen with some flexibility on when they fish — so they can avoid bad weather and take advantage of times of year when fish are available and prices are highest.”
Yet there is a stock conspicuous by its absence. That is the Gulf of Maine cod, for which NOAA’s 77 percent cuts for the 2013 and 2014 fishing years are seriously threatening the existence of virtually the entire cod fishery, and with it, the earning power of the Gloucester fleet. And, while Bullard is allowing some cod quota carryover – a whopping 1.85 percent — this limited carryover once again cries out for a needed, cooperative confirmation of the data that has led to the “economic disaster” federal officials have already declared.
Read the full opinion piece at the Gloucester Times