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FROM THE CROWE’S NEST
A call has gone out for a new plan to manage groundfish. There has not, however unfortunate, been a call for redefining the relationship of government to fisheries. One proposal is area based management. Another is a point system where fish are valued differently and discards are brought under control. A third is a variation on the current days at sea counting. Area management is not a specific plan for handling fish, but a plan to establish a means by which communities can realize management plans that best suit them. An example of this realization is the Downeast Initiative. This groups’ plan includes research that has outlined the life cycles of fishes, the fish habitat, in the Gulf of Maine. Knowing how, when, where and how many fish spawn and grow is the basis for knowing how many can be removed. Informed fish husbandry will determine sustainability. The alchemy of the management schemes of recent decades, with Wizard of Oz science and mad hatter managers, is in sharp contrast to the measured, informed, common sense view that sea life in the Gulf of Maine is part of an ancient system – a complex, but understandable system. The Gulf is not a pot of gold to scoop from. The fish taken are the interest earned. But any plan chosen has to go through the agonizingly slow government process. In the meantime the family fishing businesses are falling apart, the infrastructure the industry relies on is withering, waterfront access is being built over and a generation is growing up amid it all. The state of Maine has made it easy for some industries to prosper in the state, not the least of which is the real estate industry. It’s time for the state to step up to the plate and do for it’s oldest, most defining industry what it readily does for others. If the state can’t do what it must do, then maybe it should pass legislation to remove the mariner from the state flag, for there may soon be no one here it represents. |
