NE Groundfish Fishery in Hail Mary mode – Monitor vote could be death knell for fleet
A quick recap: The council has been working on Amendment 23 for more than two years. It seems like 50. The amendment will set future monitoring levels for sector-based groundfish vessels. The council faces four alternatives: Monitors aboard 25%, 50%, 75% or 100% of groundfish trips. The council has chosen 100% coverage as its preferred alternative. That’s not good for the groundfishermen. Once the federal government stops harvesting spare change from between the sofa cushions to keep reimbursing the fleet for at-sea monitoring, the onus for paying falls on the fishermen at a current tune of about $700 per day per vessel. >click to read< Online access to the meeting is available by >clicking this link< 10:24
Why is it that the Government puts the burden on our fisherman? We can not afford to pay for monitoring and hiring an observer .If the main focus is to make sure our fisherman report there landings and do not exceed limits set by NOAA sets There must be a less costly way to do this , instead of putting the this on our fisherman .Cameras ,landing reports ,and other less expensive ways to accomplish the goals set by The New England Management Conical The bottom line is our fisherman can not afford to pay for an observer ,Thank You Sam Parisi