Fishermen, lawmakers, traders, merchants are all desperately waiting for the long planned national fishing industry rally in Washington, D.C next Wednesday. A “sizeable fraction” faces engineered unemployment via the Obama administration’s privatization program known as “catch shares,” which comes to New England tethered to fishing cooperatives or sectors intended to cull down the fleet.
To protest this, the fishing people heading toward the nation’s capital from the north, east, southeast and south under organizers of the “United We Fish” campaign. They demand some flexibility into the Magnuson Act that now requires all overfished stocks to be restored to optimal size simultaneously. US Reps. Adam Putnam and Bill Posey, both R-FL, have joined the still small coalition seeking to modify the Magnuson Act.
The Pew Environment Group has organized dozens of smaller green groups and individuals to push back against the campaign. Recently, the Ocean Conservancy weighed in against any flexibility in recovery deadlines for overfished stocks.
Brian Rothschild, the influential industry advisor and ocean biologist at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, said that the regulatory scheme was in such confusion that a one year moratorium in the introduction of catch shares should be declared.
It is told that overfishing in New England is ending, and stocks are rebuilding, through the conservation efforts and extreme sacrifices of fishing families and communities, (but) the continuing success of these efforts is now in jeopardy. Substantial numbers of good jobs are being unnecessarily lost in New England’s commercial fishing industry as a direct result of government actions, which can be changed. Current fishery management regulations are causing the unconscionable wasting of fish.
Jane Lubchenco, who heads the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has said she believes a “sizeable fraction” of the fleet must be removed. She added that all previous fisheries to be converted to catch shares, dramatic consolidation has occurred.
