Tag Archives: Maggie Mooney-Seus
Alaskans question fishery management as snow crabs disappear
The state, which has long dominated U.S. seafood production, is reeling after the Alaska Department of Fish and Game last week canceled the winter snow crab season in the Bering Sea for the first time in history Oct. 12. The department said the population of the popular snow crabs had dropped by nearly 90 percent from 2018 to 2021, plunging from 8 billion to 1 billion. In both cases, NOAA Fisheries said the declines were likely the result of climate change,,, Crabbers, however, said they had been led astray by inaccurate data and poor management decisions. “It’s going to be really devastating to kind of make ends meet and go forward here with our business,” said Gabriel Prout, 32, who runs a family fishing vessel business in Kodiak, Alaska. Last year, PEER filed a complaint under the Information Quality Act, alleging that NOAA Fisheries had paved the way for a collapse “by engaging in sampling bias and data falsification” that inflated population estimates and led to years of overfishing. >click to read< 16:59
UPDATED – New Hampshire’s small commercial fishing fleet is reeling – at odds with NOAA over cod reductions
“The fishermen vehemently dispute this latest assessment,” said David Goethel, captain of the F/V Ellen Diane out of Hampton Harbor. He’s served on the New England Fisheries Management Council and fished for more than two decades, and said the new measures may put him out of business. “It’s a completely idiotic program,” he said. “It is intended to kill fish and kill fishermen.” Read the rest here 09:09 and On the Seacoast, cod fishing blues read it here 10:23
Fishing crews seethe at ineligibility for aid – “You’re going to have winners and losers.” Maggie Mooney-Seus
The National Marine Fisheries Service said 194 fishing permits qualified for the $32,000 check. But local fishermen say some fishermen own several permits, sometimes dozens, so the $6.3 million could benefit as few as 100 out of the nearly 800 who hold federal permits in Massachusetts. Read more here 12:19
