New England fishermen face grim vote on cuts

[n2doc]

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (AP) — New England's fishing fleet faced grim news Wednesday as regulators meet to consider steep cuts in catch limits that fishermen warn will trigger industry collapse.

The New England Fishery Management Council was meeting in Portsmouth to decide 2013 limits on stocks including cod on Georges Bank and in the Gulf of Maine. Fishermen are facing a year-to-year 81 percent cut on the Gulf of Maine cod catch limit, to 1,249 metric tons, and 61 percent on Georges Bank cod, to 5,103 metric tons.

Fishermen who chase the region's bottom-dwelling groundfish, such as cod and flounder, say the cuts will hollow out what remains of a struggling fleet, leaving it with too few fish to make a living.

The low limit reduces the catch on a storied New England species to just a fraction of what it once was, and it also prevents fishermen from landing more plentiful species, such as haddock and pollock. That's because fishermen can't pull up the healthier groundfish without catching too much of the cod that swim among them.


Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/news/us/article/New-England-fishermen-face-grim-vote-on-cuts-4234340.php

[TheMastersNemesis]

1. Rock And A Hard Place --- Keep Fishing Kill All The Fish - Impose Limits Kill The Fleet

It is a sad situation that will force fishermen out of the business. We can bring back the fishing fleet at a sensible level eventually but we cannot brink back the fish from extinction.

[Lionessa]

5. Bullshit! There are more than two choices, hence no rock r hard place.

The industry has known for decades they were over fishing and that stocks were not properly being allowed to replenish themselves. They should have found different jobs and livelihoods by now. IE there shouldn't be so many folks still relying on fishing, but alas we're stupid and continue to do the same things and somehow expect different results.

[GliderGuider]

10. We did what we did, and we are where we are - between a rock cod and a hard plaice...

Ba-da-bump!

But I'm serious. Woulda, coulda, shoulda buys us nada. Kill the fish or kill the fleet. It's a simple, hard choice at this point.

[Lionessa]

11. But killing a fleet isn't a hard place so much, those folks then have other options, killing the

killing the fish is kind of the end for them. Your rock and hard place are NOT the only two options for the fisherman, and the fish have only one option for survival. I have NO ZERO ZIP NADA sympathy for the fishing fleets or the fishermen/women.

[GliderGuider]

13. I don't understand your point then.

If the fishing fleet dies and the fishers find other things to do, the fleet is still gone, right?

While I agree they should have been making other plans, I have a bit of sympathy for someone who got attached to a multigenerational way of life. It's going to be a wrenching event for them, as it was for the cod fishermen in Newfoundland outports.

[tblue]

2. "key stocks are in perilous condition"

Left out that part.

[lunasun]

4. Poor health of key fish stocks

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's top federal fisheries regulator, John Bullard, has acknowledged that the cuts will be devastating to the industry and fishing communities.

But he says the science and low catch rates this year show that key stocks are in perilous condition and major cuts are needed to meet legal mandates to rebuild the fishery.
He predicted that the industry would adapt and survive in some form until groundfish recover, perhaps by learning how to better catch healthy stocks.

Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/news/us/article/New-England-fishermen-face-grim-vote-on-cuts-4234340.php#ixzz2JU2N7MlJ

[bunnies]

3. Yeah. Because we're running out of fish up here! I'm sorry but...

its time for us to back off on the fishing. Either they're going to lose work now or they're going to lose work later when we have no fish left at all. I know many people who make a living in the industry around Portsmouth. But its common sense. We're talking about endangering fish here.

[Lionessa]

6. And don't you agree, they have had decades to get it through their thick heads that this was

going to be the case sooner or later if they didn't reduce fishing way back when and through to now???? I've got not one ounce of sympathy for those fishers.

[bunnies]

8. I completely agree...

to the point that its almost infuriating! Had they cut back just a little bit a decade or so ago it would be a completely different story now. But no. Instead theyve taken us to the brink of being fished out all together. How would they feel if their grandchild never even got to see a native NE fish? dumbasses. all of em.

[friendly_iconoclast]

7. The fisheries collapse in Newfoundland should have been a giant clue.

[bunnies]

9. Yep. This is what greed does. nt

[GliderGuider]

12. "Greed" is doing it all - not just the fisheries.

The climate change, the economic collapse, the devastation of fresh water and topsoil, the deforestation, the mining pollution...

Of course, whether we see it as "greed" or just "wanting my children to have a better life than I did" depends on whether it's them or us doing it, right?