Christopher Brown, president of the Rhode Island Commercial Fishermen’s Association, reassures none of these fishing restrictions will have a direct impact on Rhode Island fishermen. Read the rest here 18:48
NILS STOLPE: The New England groundfish debacle (Part IV): Is cutting back harvest really the answer?
While it’s a fact that’s hardly ever acknowledged, the assumption in fisheries management is that if the population of a stock of fish isn’t at some arbitrary level, it’s because of too much fishing. Hence the term “overfished.” Hence the mandated knee jerk reaction of the fisheries managers to not enough fish; cut back on fishing. What of other factors? They don’t count. It’s all about fishing, because fishing is all that the managers can control; it’s their Maslow’s Hammer. When it comes to the oceans it seems as if it’s about all that the industry connected mega-foundations that support the anti-fishing ENGOs with hundreds of millions of dollars a year in “donations” are interested in controlling. Read the article here
While Chris may be right about the new regulations on Gulf of Maine cod not affecting his group of fishermen, I would advise against becoming too complacent. This particular action was directed at the GOM cod, but there is talk about the George’s cod not being in much better shape, if you can believe that?
Much of the discussion at the NEFMC meeting in Newport, RI the past 4 days included disbelief by many GOM fishermen who are catching large amounts of cod with very little effort, over large areas of the Gulf.
When claims of large catches are offered as proof of this biomass, it is disclaimed with statements that reflect that “these are the last vestiges of cod that have aggregated into small remaining groups for protection”. Fishermen claim that they are much more wide spread that the Service believes, & seem to be just moving to adapt to local conditions.
It now remains for the industry to some how prove this to the NMFS & Science Center so that future assessments can work with what many fishermen feel is a much larger biomass of cod. Can you say cooperative surveys?
Jim Kendall NBSC
All NMFS & NOAA have is junk science and bogus computer models to support their efforts to destroy the fishing communities.