As per the information the bill introduced in the House of Representatives by Pallone and Rep. Walter Jones, R-NC, is similar to their “flexibility act” offered in the last session of Congress. The bill would allow 10-year rebuilding of stock schedule which was adopted at the urging of environmental groups, who argue the fishing industry historically has persuaded regulators to avoid taking tough steps to end overfishing.
But fishermen argued the fixed timetable is biologically unrealistic – and a management time bomb. Thomas P. Fote, a New Jersey commissioner to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, said that it’s like a woodland coming back – some species and plants will take over at the expense of others.
What’s chafing fishermen now are season limits on black sea bass, a species that’s been considered rebuilt for years, but still treated cautiously by regulators because there is a lot of uncertainty about its population data. Pallone said the new version of his bill requires a better explanation of “uncertainty” findings by science and statistical committees – advisers to regional fishery management councils who were assigned a much more influential role during the 2006 rewrite of the Magnuson-Stevens law.
