The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have unveiled interim rules governing the groundfish fishery which reduce fishing pressure on the stocks while continuing the switch to a newer, sector-based management approach. NOAA said that this new rule takes effect May 1, and aim to get the industry closer to ending overfishing by 2010, as required by federal law. NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco said in a press release that the package of rules is designed to balance healthy fishing communities and sustainable fisheries.
Lubchenco also said that it builds a solid bridge to a larger, long-term solution for managing the fishery through catch shares, which will help restore the ecosystem and the economic health of the fishing communities. The system will give fishermen more of a stake in how the fishery is managed.
At present regulations seek to curb overfishing by regulating the number of days fishermen are allowed to fish, a system critics say has failed both the fishermen and the fish stocks. The new rules approved last week decrease the total allowable catch for cod, and enlarge the fishing area around the Great South Channel where each fishing day is counted as two days in an effort to further protect winter flounder. The rules prohibit fishermen from keeping that species, along with northern windowpane flounder and ocean pout.
It is told that the rules allow fishermen to target healthy stocks like Georges Bank haddock, and expand the area where hook-and-line fishermen have special access to haddock, provided that they agree to bring more federal observers on their trips. The minimum legal size for haddock was also decreased by one inch, allowing more keepers. It is also told that the rules give fishermen more flexibility by allowing the roll-over of unused bycatch allocations during the first three quarters of the fishing year; they also make it easier for groundfish permits and leased days-at-sea to be transferred.
