At the end of the three day session over the scallop catch plan for the New England and Middle Atlantic regions reaches to fight. Scott Lang, mayor of New Bedford, has led the fight against a conservative scallop catch decision, and in insurgency that’s come to include industry and political forces from as far away as Virginia and the Carolinas.
It is informed that several scallop fishermen are trekking from New Bedford, the scallop capital of the Ocean Nation. Like most fishery disputes, this one pivots on the clash of environmental and economic forces. Lang suspects that environmental forces have come to exert a clandestine and improper influence on the council through the staff.
On the contrary environmental interests believe that published reports and economic interests explain the high-profile political interest in the outcome. At issue is the council’s reconsideration of a 10-7 November vote to roll back scalloping from 38 to 29 days for general fishing and from 5 to 4 days access for specially permitted boats to scallop-rich controlled areas. The new rules would reduce the catch of America’s No. 1 cash fish product by about 6 million pounds.
The council in approving the conservative catch plan backed away from one that is equally proper and legal — as council documents concede. It is noted that the decision to revisit the scallop plan was the unilateral act of John Pappalardo, the chairman of the council and also the policy director of the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen’s Association. Pappalardo was summoned to a private sitdown with Gov. Deval Patrick in his office on Sunday night, Jan. 10.
The original tighter limits on scalloping were made by Sally McGee, chairwoman of the Scallop Committee and the fisheries policy director of the Environmental Defense Fund. Lang said the issue is whether the council process has been taken over by a bureaucratic staff which has an agenda apart from the council’s mission to preserver the fishery and sustain the economy. He added that he is concerned that decisions are being made behind closed doors not in front of public.
