By Rob Snyder, Special to the BDN – Today, fisheries make up 25 percent of the jobs in the bay’s economy and contribute $108 million, or 12 percent, of the economic base of the bay. The fisheries economy is perhaps the most fragile: lobster landings have increased fourfold over the past 20 years, pointing to a seemingly unsustainable population dynamic. continued
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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