If you’ve been following the (mis)management of river herring over the last few years, you may not even be surprised at the latest shenanigans of the NOAA fisheries officials: a delay tactic in the form of a “working group.” Read more here 10:57
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
I have been following the river herring which aren’t actually managed because there is no directed fishery for them. If there was the herring would be far better off having for profit commercial protectors instead of douchebaggy lawyers like Roger Fleming who have no use for river herring except as a donation and lawsuit generating mechanism.
The river herring in Southern New England are being used as a weapon to ban or severely restrict the pelagic trawling of about 9 fishing vessels who catch so few river herring their impact is negligible at best. It is far more likely the herring are being poisoned by the herbicides being used to clear their streams than that they are being caught far from shore by pelagic vessels.
Who is making those herbicides anyway? Monsanto.