June 27, 2014 — "Wasted Cash," the follow-up to "Wasted Catch," says that fishermen are throwing $1 billion worth of fish away each year, over the side instead of going to auction.
The environmental group Oceana seeks to impress us this week with Part 2 of a report on fishing bycatch, those fish that are brought up incidentally while fishermen target another species.
"Wasted Cash," the follow-up to "Wasted Catch," says that fishermen are throwing $1 billion worth of fish away each year, over the side instead of going to auction.
The first part of the report was published in March, and sought to document that there has been very little progress reducing bycatch. The furious response that followed pointed to all sorts of effective and innovative things that U.S. fishermen and researchers have come up with, like those underwater video surveys invented by UMass Dartmouth's School for Marine Science and Technology.
Only a couple of weeks ago, the coordinating committee for the eight fisheries management councils sent Oceana a letter that was a shot across its bow, charging that the analysis is faulty, data is skimpy, assumptions are faulty, omissions are plentiful and the science is way, way too thin. (The letter is very lengthy. I am sketching it here for you; the whole text is available online).
I wonder what Oceana was thinking when this letter dropped in its lap barely two weeks ago. After all, here was the report, almost ready to go, and the councils call foul even before its release.
The answer? Ignore the councils, it appears. The new Oceana report makes a passing nod to some improvements, then proceeds to revisit the first report as if nothing had happened.
So I contacted them to ask why. Back came a statement from Oceana fishing campaign manager Dominique Cano-Stocco: "Oceana will not retract the 'Wasted Catch' report, which uses the most recent and comprehensive data available from the federal government. The report mentions the positive steps that have been taken to decrease bycatch in U.S. fisheries, however there is still a long way to go to get to the finish line."
That last part we can agree on. Oceana's spokeswoman, Amelia Vorpahl, firmly told me that while both parties agree on the existence of the problem, "we come at it from different directions."
She said a response to the councils should be ready in a couple of weeks, but she spoke more in terms of rebutting the councils rather than daring admit that there might be some real problems with "Wasted Catch/Wasted Cash."
Read the full opinion piece at the New Bedford Standard-Times