We Should All Stand Up And Cheer

(You can follow this ongoing story from the main menu above: Fishery News | News From New England links.)

Finally.  A fisheries management council with the integrity to stand up to the NMFS and their narrow interpretation of a bill that was never intended to "bring the fisheries to their knees".

Hopefully, this breath of fresh air, which echos a sentiment that has been written many times on this site, will blow through the entire broken regulatory system and put a halt to the narrow minded over regulation that is slowly but surely putting us all out of business.

First, from the Salem News web site:

"Our view: Finally, a demand for reasonable fishery rules

Maybe, just maybe, what's left of the commercial fishing industry on the North Shore will survive, thanks to a man in a black robe.

It looked dubious as recently as last month. While plenty of fishermen, politicians and scientists have been willing to challenge the National Marine Fisheries Service's regulatory squeeze in recent years, none has had the authority to back up those challenges.

That all changed recently. U.S. District Judge Edward Harrington does have such authority, and has at least temporarily eliminated the current draconian restrictions on fishing with a blistering opinion that chastises the regulators for failing to abide by their own written obligations. Finally, there is someone who recognizes the rights of humans as well as fish, and has the legal muscle to do something about it."

Then, even more surprising and encouraging, from the Gloucester Daily Times web site:

"Fish panel stands firm vs. NMFS

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — The regional council that sets fishery policy sided with a federal judge yesterday, asserting that Congress did not expect or want the industry brought to its knees in an effort to nurture back to health the weakest stock in the polyglot groundfish system.

In the process, the New England Fishery Management Council put itself at odds with its governmental master, the National Marine Fisheries Service, over Congress' intent as expressed in the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the governing statute for fisheries reauthorized in 2007."

At odds with the NMFS perhaps, but not at odds with any reasonable interpretation of an act that, while calling for careful regulation of the fisheries to prevent depletion of the valuable resource also stressed a demand for consideration of the effects on the fishing industry and the fishing communities that depend on that industry.

As Brian Rothschild, a Professor of Marine Science and Technology from U.Mass Dartmouth suggested, (The goal of regulation should be to) "maintain the fabric of the fishing communities" while "preventing overfishing."

We commend the U.S. District Judge Edward Harrington.  We commend the New England Fisheries Management Council.  We hope that the Gulf Council is paying close attention. 

Hopefully Mr. Crabtree and The Gulf Council members will one day soon realize that there is no justification for draconian rules that are enacted with no thought to the damage done to fishermen, their families and their communities.   Regulation of fisheries to the benefit of well financed special interest groups should end. Regulatory agencies caving in to unreasonable threats of litigation from well funded litigation machines of extremist conservation groups should end.  The fisheries are regulated under the Magnuson-Stevens Act.  It is time for the regulators to read and follow that act in its entirety and realize that narrowly focusing on one or two clauses does not serve the intended purpose of the act and is not the mandate of Congress or the People of the United States that Congress represents.

Watch this site for further details of this situation and other news that concerns the Southern Offshore Fishermen.