Commercial fisheries regulators are meeting in Portland this week to discuss the reorganisation of fishing rules to so that better protection could be given to both stocks and fishermen. It is said that this is the best chance to move away from the failed system of restricting fishing by limiting how often fishermen can go to sea in favor of a management plan that lets fishermen decide when and how much to catch.
For years regulators are trying hard to increase the stocks of groundfish, such as cod and haddock. Although fishermen are now limited to as few as 20 days of fishing per year in some areas off New England, few fish species have recovered. There is an urgent need of new management system. Regulators and fishermen have been working for more than a year on new rules that would manage ocean catches using a sector system.
The Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen’s Association was issued a sector three years ago, the first Atlantic coast group to try the new system. Tom Dempsey, an analyst with the association told the Vineyard Gazette, informed that the sector model gives fishermen on Martha’s Vineyard an opportunity to preserve the resource and maintain their own viable business. He told that under the current system that is getting harder and harder.
New England Fisheries Management Council is now considering allowing fishermen to continue working under the current days-at-sea rules. The continued decline of fish stocks despite increasingly stringent limits on fishing time shows that such a dual approach will fail.
