Editorial: Halibut population is wobbling

June 2, 2015 North Pacific

Mismanagement of bycatch — fish caught by accident while boats net other permitted species — is an offensive waste most recently highlighted by a May 30 story in the Seattle Times. The Times’ focus is on the (tinyurl.com/p9vr49l), but the issues involved are familiar to most commercial fishermen. Longstanding bycatch rules are based on distrust of fishermen and somewhat logical, but obviously counterproductive, notions about how to discourage “accidental-on-purpose” behavior. Read the rest here 19:17

(mis)management, Alaskan halibut fishery, Halibut bycatch, North Pacific Fishery Management Council

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The New England groundfish debacle (Part III): who or what is at fault? Nils E. Stolpe/FishNet

It took me a while to decide how to most accurately describe the situation that has been visited upon the New England fishing communities that are and since colonial times have been dependent on the groundfish fisheries.

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

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