“It’s really grim,” said Fiorelli, Reuters reports. “These stocks are in real decline and questions were raised about whether they’ll ever come back.” An economic analysis by the council, which fishers consider too cheerful, estimated that the cuts would lower overall groundfish revenues by 33 per cent, from about USD 90 million in 2011 to about USD 60 million this year. Read more
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
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