Over the past five years NOAA has imposed strict regulations on cod and other groundfish. Our fleet has gone from 200 vessels down to about 65. At the same time, if you can make sense out of this, NOAA has increased rental space by two thirds and has employed three times more workers. In the last two years, our small boats have been particularly hurt due to closures of inshore fishing grounds. Now rumor has it that NOAA,,, Read the rest here 07:41
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
The playing field in Washington DC will not change until you vote in those who believe in getting the government out of our business and who believe in stopping the crony capitalism which has been taken to unseemly levels (with our tax dollars) with the current lawless administration and a number of those in both houses of congress..
I am a little worried to read this statement…. without some hint of verification from the source. To wit:
“Now rumor has it that NOAA, in the next two or
three months, will be shutting down Georges Bank, where our larger boats fish for cod, haddock and other bottom fish.”
Who “so-called” officially is floating this trial balloon?