March 28, 2024
Business

Fishermen get reprieve from new regulations

BOSTON – Federal regulators will allow up to five additional years for some decimated fish populations to replenish, giving New England fishermen a reprieve from tough new restrictions on their livelihood.

The National Marine Fisheries Service announced Tuesday it would extend the deadline for rebuilding stocks of cod and other groundfish species to 2014, rather than the 2009 deadline established earlier.

That means that the New England Fishery Management Council, as it develops the latest set of regulations for stocks under its purview, could allow extra time for rebuilding certain species. That would likely translate into more leeway for fishermen, but it’s too early to say exactly how.

The council writes fishing regulations subject to review by NMFS, a branch of the U.S. Commerce Department.

Fishermen praised the delay, but environmental groups who have pushed for stricter catch limits accused the agency of bending to political pressure from fishermen.

“This is a major problem. They’re flying in the face of the law and breaking their own promises,” said Eric Bilsky, a lawyer with the conservation group Oceana.

The Boston-based Conservation Law Foundation led a coalition of environmental groups that sued the federal government in 2000, charging it allowed stocks of cod and other commercially valuable species to be overfished. A federal judge ruled in favor of the environmental groups two years ago, ordering tough new restrictions.

Those rules have since been relaxed twice, most recently in December, when U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler delayed the deadline for the new groundfish regulations – called Amendment 13 – from Aug. 22, 2003 to May 1, 2004.

Following a Monday briefing on Capitol Hill, Bill Hogarth, an assistant administrator with the fisheries service, wrote in a statement that he would support using 2004 as the “start of the rebuilding clock for appropriate species.”

Previously, 2009 had been a target date for rebuilding stocks. Now, timelines that begin in 2004 would mean regulations could allow rebuilding up to 2014.

“Look at the stocks, we’re making progress,” Hogarth told The Boston Globe. “We changed the goalposts, however. This is the responsible way to go.”

Scientists will use the extra time to further assess the impact of a highly publicized mistake in collecting samples used in fish counts, and review its projections about the health of fish stocks and the social impacts of the new rules.

Once finalized and instituted, the Amendment 13 regulations could give up to 10 years or longer for the various groundfish species, such as cod, haddock, flounders, to regenerate.

“It’s wonderful news,” Angelo Sanfilippo of the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association said of the extension. “This is a fairer way to rebuild the stocks.”

Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine both praised NMFS for demonstrating flexibility.

“This flexibility is crucial because the rebuilding targets for some species have increased dramatically,” Snowe said Wednesday. “With more time to meet new rebuilding targets, fisheries managers will be able to keep the fishery rebuilding, and the communities fishing.”

“This announcement is good news for Maine’s fishermen,” said Collins.

“It strikes an appropriate balance between rebuilding the fish stocks to healthy levels and maintaining a vital commercial fishing industry.”


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