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Hearing
Fisherman's Voices
By: Editorial
Fishermen can be
excused for not being enthusiastic about the
industry's top regulator finally talking about
"community-based management." Fishermen from
Maine and around the country have long suggested
that decisions about how many fish are caught
and where be made by those with the most
knowledge of the area. Now, it seems that the
National Marine Fisheries Service has heard
them. That's a good start.
William Hogarth, the head of NMFS, met with
Massachusetts fishermen last week to discuss
rule changes. "Fishing is a tough business and a
hazardous business. We need to continue to try
to work to let fishermen have more of a say,"
Hogarth said in New Bedford. He later told the
paper there that new approaches such as
community-based management and individual
fishing quotas need to be seriously considered.
While skeptical that consideration will turn
into reality, fishermen are pleased that the top
regulator is seeing things their way when it
comes to local control. Under community-based
management, rules are made to cover a small area
taking into account the local ecology and
economy.
A study two years ago by the Pew Charitable
Trusts found that the national system of fishery
management councils was "fundamentally flawed."
The council system, put in place in the 1970s,
doesn't work because the groups cover too much
area and try to do too much. Regulating fishing
from the Bay of Fundy to Narragansett Bay with
one set of rules does not make sense and doesn't
work. A more localized approach would likely
work better. There is already a successful
example in Maine's lobster zone management
concept, which has been touted internationally.
Another change mentioned by Mr. Hogarth and
worthy of consideration is a move toward
individual fishing quotas rather than the
current system of limiting the number of days
that fishermen can spend at sea and putting
large sections of the ocean off-limits to them.
Fishermen worry that quotas will allow large
vessels to put small ones out of business.
A bill drafted by Sen. Olympia
Snowe,
chair of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on
Oceans, Fisheries and Coast Guard, begins to
address such concerns. It would require that any
quotas that are proposed meet national standards
that limit consolidation - the buying up of
fishing rights by large vessels - and protect
local communities. A quota could not be put in
place unless two-thirds of fishermen who voted
supported it. Quotas that do both have been put
in place in other states and countries and can
be made to work for Maine.
The overdue reauthorization of the
Magnuson-Stevens Act, which should begin soon,
provides an opportunity to consider such
changes. The end result should be rules that
protect fish without harming fishermen.
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