NOAA holds firm on shutdown to protect porpoises. Fishermen insulted by regional administrator Bullards they can sell their quota response.
Bullard rejected the proposed alternative proposed by the coalition, writing that switching to the coalition alternative offered fishermen or the harbor porpoises little to gain.
Moreover, he warned in his letter to Odell, a recent harbor porpoise stock assessment showed the “population has declined,” implying that more radical actions than the “consequence” closure would be expected. Read more.
The queer minded catch share advocates have such a disingenuous reply to those effected by a successful MMPA that now has the small gillnet fleet facing extinction. These fishermen should be placed on the Endangered Species list, and protected. This issue galvenizes their demise. The NOAA answer? They can sell their quota. Isn’t that special.
I had reservations about Mr. Bullard, and his endorsement in the press from EDFers, and Gang Green, but thought I could give him the benefit of the doubt. Reading of the meetings along the coast with fishermen and others in the press, along with this decision to follow the NOAA status quo, reaffirms my initial internal reaction. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Like evertything else, the concequence of the MMPA, is the rebuilding of the marine mammal populations to the point they are everywhere in huge abundance. The notion of looking at the ocean as a fish tank like the Boston Aquarium where everything is just so, may be appealing, it is also unrealistic. But then, what view point would be expected of the rose colored glasses wearing econut extremists disingenuous claim to be environmentalists. They are opinionists.
I believe the two fishermen in this article are the true environmentalist, living, and breathing within the ocean environment, trying to survive the consequences of the success of a MMPA that was enacted with no balance benchmarks, that has now become another tool to eradicate fishermen from harvesting our common resource, for us.
ABOLISH CATCH SHARES NOW! BH
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