Decades of mismanagement and overfishing have left New England's once-astonishing groundfish stocks near collapse.
A rewrite of the nation's ocean-fishery law passed last week by the U.S. Senate may give them a better chance to recover.
Under the Senate reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery
Conservation and Management Act, which passed by unanimous consent, New
England fishery managers will have to set catch limits at or below the
level necessary to rebuild fish stocks.
Compliant regional regulators will no longer be allowed to ignore the
relentless overharvesting of species such as cod, flounder and sole
that has characterized the recent past. Instead, when harvests exceed
recommended limits, managers will have three years to reduce landings
by a like amount.
Yet, the passage of the Senate bill only sets the stage for a showdown
with the abjectly inadequate version approved by the House.
Where the Senate bill takes steps to end overfishing, the House bill,
co-sponsored by Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., and Rep. Barney Frank,
D-Mass., weakens the flimsy current law.
It opens new loopholes in the requirement to rebuild overfished stocks
and waives the application of the National Environmental Policy Act for
fishery decisions, which eliminates an important avenue for public
comment.
New England's fishing ports have been battered by the repeated cuts in
the days fishermen are allowed to be at sea. But the prospects for
fishermen aren't going to improve unless and until fish stocks have
time to rebound.
That's what makes the Pombo/Frank bill so dangerous. At a time when
some species are on the brink of collapse, Pombo's rewrite would give
New England fishery managers more leeway to continue making the bad
decisions that may please fishermen but put the fishery in peril.
Copyright © 2006 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
