Predator, prey balance needed in fisheries management Carmine Gorga, Ph.D.
To the editor:
Congratulations to Matt Mullin, deputy regional director, New England Oceans Program, Environmental Defense Fund! He is the first member of the fisheries “establishment” who has publicly admitted to the need to account for the “predator and prey balance” (Letter, the Times, Nov, 14). This is a very important communication.
There is now hope that sooner or later even the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and its National Marine Fisheries Service will eventually look at stocks of fish as existing in a web of interrelationships with each other, rather than in linear formation as they were depicted in ancient biology books. There is now hope that overfishing will no longer be attributed to the pitiful family fishing fleet!
Just imagine a world in which NOAA and NMFS acknowledge their boundaries, a world in which they leave the family fishing fleet alone. A world in which they get up the gumption to go after the large, often subsidized, national and international corporations, at times culprits for the devastation of the fisheries. Just imagine a world in which NOAA and NMFS call for a balanced management of pelagics (mid-water fish) and bottom fish!
Carmine Gorga, Ph.D.
Middle Street,
Gloucester
Mr. Gorga.
Your letter to the Editor shows great insight of the predatory nature of regulators, ENGO’s, and the stock assessment scientist that are in denial that an over abundance of pelagic fish along with the recognized over abundance problems of dogfish, skates, seals, and questionably whales, affecting ground fish populations in New England.
The little bastards are eating everything they can find, and the only ones being blamed for overfishing are fishermen.
Not all fishermen, though. Ground fishermen.
It is wreckless for the NMFS to ignore herring as predators as was done in 54th Stock Assessment Workshop (SAW)/Stock Assessment Review Committee (SARC) Meetings.
During the public comment period, Peter Mullen asked if herring were considered as prey in the SAW and the answer he recieved was no. Herring were not considered. This is troubling, because we know who gets blamed for the fishery failures, even when “they” say it’s not from fishermen over fishing.
The New England ground fishery is in crisis.
Fish and Future , November 12, 2005
http://carmine3.newsvine.com/_…
A Question that Demands a Better Response Than What Was
Recieved. – The Free Press
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