For the past two years, I have made many visits to Massachusetts fishing communities in New Bedford, Gloucester and the South Shore to hear about the challenges facing the industry. continued@southcoasttoday
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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
Disaster relief is good, but I’d like to hear more talk about policy changes and the decimation of the fleets from catch shares. And, oh yes, Murkowski isn’t from Arkansas, she’s from Alaska. Unfortunately her fisheries advisor is a former NOAA suit, and like Begich she’s been bought out by the “We love Catch Shares” lobby. You know, the ones who no longer run their own boats, and live in Palm Springs and Hawaii.
Good catch on the Ark error!
I find Liz to be another out of touch mouthpiece that will take every opportunity to grandstand to a receptive audience.
The fishermen are not it!
The political bum kissers are.
Ray Lamont’s Editorial is a realistic view.
What the bum kissers are excited about is $10 million crumbs that will not help one fisherman in New England.
Alaska Gal,i cant speak for areas I don’t fish,but the areas I fish and the fishing communities that rely on these fisheries have been devastated by the introduction of catch shares-If I could say anything to other fishermen in this country who are looking at catch shares being introduced into their fisheries,it would be to fight it tooth and nail and do everything in your power to keep it from happening,usually the ones pushing it have already set themselves up to benefit from it-Catch shares have turned into nothing but a disaster here in Nor’ East groundfishery,even the ones who thought they set themselves up have been sadly mistaken
Yup, they did it here first. Kodiak went from 57 home based crab boats to 3-5. There’s a good read on the Alaska Journal of Commerce site that tells the story of crewmen whose jobs were threatened if they testified in opposition during the hearings in Dutch Harbor for the original “pilot program” (translates to “We permanently fuck you later” . I so feel the pain of the East Coast guys….In addition to all the quota cutbacks I read on this site that they had to pay over $700 mo. for a 65 ft. boat! WTF!! Closer to $150 a month here…