The inspector general started the investigation last year after requests from former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank and U.S. Rep. John Tierney. The lawmakers say rulemakers had forgotten their mandate to develop and involve the commercial fishing industry. Among the review’s findings: Financial disclosure by regional managers did little to increase transparency and record-keeping was inconsistent. Read more
View the links to the report documents here
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
Hi, I just read the Massachusetts Fisheries Institute Releases Plan to Review New England Groundfish Stock Assessments. I think that you may note with satisfaction the attention given to environmental influences. What, I’m afraid is missing is the problem of pollution in coastal/inshore waters, and the problem of managing single species in multi-species fisheries, that leads to what appears ridiculous situations forcing fishermen to jettison as by-catch perfectly marketable fish – dead or dying. What do you think?
Cheers, MB-Y
Conveniently missing from all discussion is pollution as a cause of un healthy stock’s.
Big Pharma feeds it’s chemical concoction to the public, and it is flushed from body’s into the eco system, through treatment plants not capable of removal.
A big factor in inshore pollution is water released from sewage treatment plants. They take the water from human sewage, treat it with chlorine to “kill” the bad stuff in it and “clean” it, but then release the chlorinated water into the bays and inshore waterways. I have heard of two fisheries in two completely different locations where, once the sewage treatment plants were put in, the inshore fisheries completely collapsed. If you pour chlorine or Clorox on your lawn, it kills the grass, right? Imagine pouring that all over the aquatic plants in bays and inlets where fish habitats exist, and then through the gills of fish themselves- what is going to happen?
A big in inshore pollution is water released from sewage treatment plants. They take the water from human sewage, treat it with chlorine to “kill” the bad stuff in it and “clean” it, but then release the chlorinated water into the bays and inshore waterways. I have heard of two fisheries in two completely different locations where, once the sewage treatment plants were put in, the inshore fisheries completely collapsed. If you pour chlorine or Clorox on your lawn, it kills the grass, right? Imagine pouring that all over the aquatic plants in bays and inlets where fish habitats exist, and then through the gills of fish themselves- what is going to happen?