Peter Baker, who manages the Pew Environment Group’s New England Fisheries Campaigns, has said in his expressed the views of Pew in response to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) announcement that it would be raising the Annual Catch Limit for pollock by nearly 500 percent. Pollock annual catch limit is well adjusted by National Marine Fisheries Service. This action will allow the new sector system a better chance of succeeding by safely increasing the pollock catch limits, which will help provide the fleet more time to catch designated limits of other groundfish stocks.
New England needs effective sector management to rebuild stocks and restoring the resources that support traditional fishing communities. NMFS decision to raise the annual catch limit is based on the best available science recently made available through an updated stock assessment. This latest peer reviewed assessment was conducted by a team of scientists at the New England Fisheries Science Center, including scientists from a number of independent institutions.
