November 18, 2012 — The School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST) at UMass Dartmouth is uniquely suited to provide this research. SMAST has an ideal location as well as a history of fostering positive collaboration between all fishing stakeholders.
The elections may be over, but the current Congress still has work to do.
On Sept. 13, 2012, acting U.S. Secretary of Commerce Rebecca Blank declared the Northeast's groundfish industry a federal disaster, opening the door for Congress to allocate funds for fishery disaster aid. Of course, any disaster relief should first address the needs of fishermen and their families. But the package currently being negotiated should also include funds to reinvigorate scientific research, which is essential to maximizing the economic benefits of tomorrow's fishing industry.
The fishing industry is important for Massachusetts, generating billions in economic activity annually. In New Bedford, the number one fishing port by value of catch in the United States and home to several major processors, the stakes are especially high. But the industry has been hurting for years and efforts to maximize productivity have been hampered by a lack of reliable scientific data.
We need reliable, independent science. And Massachusetts is best equipped to provide it.
When the federal government first began regulating America's coastal fisheries in 1976, with the passage of the predecessor to today's Magnuson-Stevens Act, the law was hailed for basing future fishing decisions on hard science. Scientific data, would inform the decisions of the regional fishing councils the law created, allowing the councils to carefully balance the interests of environmentalists and those of fishermen and their communities. Unfortunately, there was little scientific research about fishing available at the time, other than attempts to count how many of each species fishermen were landing. While Magnuson-Stevens has been amended several times in the intervening 36 years, most recently in 2007, scientific research that can help our fishing industry maximize opportunities remains limited.
That's because there has not been adequate, sustained funding for independent research centers. At times of crisis, regulators and industry players search frantically for data. When the crisis passes, research dollars disappear. The most consistent research occurs at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s own National Marine Fisheries Service research facilities. But NOAA's research, which attempts to estimate the number of a particular species of fish in hundreds of square miles of ocean at a given time, yields broad ranges and approximations. In addition, thanks to years of mistrust between NOAA and the industry it regulates, NOAA's data is increasingly questioned by many in the industry. Determining the number, type and location of fish, their ability to replenish themselves and their interaction with other undersea life has proven unexpectedly difficult. Add the effects of global warming and other environmental changes, and NOAA faces an impossible task: to balance the interests of fish and fishermen in a rapidly changing environment using scientific evidence that is, by its own scientists' admission, often unspecific, unproven and unreliable. NOAA has been put in the position of acting not only as judge and jury, but as prosecution, defense and expert witness.
Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard Times