While we are uncomfortable with tax dollars supporting the dissolution of a significant part of a private industry, the commercial fishing industry is unique in that the federal government imposes limits on fishermen's incomes by restricting the catch they are allowed to keep and sell. Given that, enabling those boat owners and fishermen who wish to leave the industry a means of doing so is both just and fair. The Obama administration should support the buyback program.
Whether it was limiting the number of days a fishing boat could spend at sea or limiting how many fish could be taken, the reality is all the same for fishing ports like New Bedford: too many boats going after the same catch.
And so a proposal from eight U.S. senators — including Republicans Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, but not our own Sen. Scott Brown — to pay for a $100 million groundfishing permit buyback program is a concession to reality. It is also a recognition of the economic harm being done to the industry and groundfishermen throughout the region as federal regulators impose new regulations aimed at protecting fish stocks.
Read the complete editorial from The South Coast Today [subscription site].