FROM THE CROWE’S NEST

Can Bean Counters

The marine fisheries in the Gulf of Maine are under the management of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), a federal agency commonly referred to as “the service” and the New England Fisheries Management Council, commonly called “the Council”.

NMFS is a rigid government agency that has been directed to carry out specific tasks under specific guidelines. Its employees are government employees, period.

The Council, on the other hand, has a mixed membership, 16 of whom are voting members. Membership includes six fishermen, representatives of New England states Departments of Marine Fisheries, Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission members, an environmentalist, others with a range of experience in marine fisheries, and NMFS representatives.

The two groups together are sometimes referred to as management. But, it is the Council that crafts the management plans, within federal guidelines, under the eye of NMFS, and with public input.

For decades fishermen have leveled particular criticisms of NMFS for its inability to understand the fisheries it is charged with changing. Last month some of those criticisms were cited on this page and directed at management. The service instead of management would have been more accurate, for they were the targets.

NMFS is being sued for its varied failures by a range of groups from around the US coasts, groups that include fishermen. The New England Council is under added pressure to come up with a plan, pressure that is a direct result of service failures. In one 1999 suit, the service was found guilty by one of their own, a federal judge, and given 10 years to act effectively.

Fishermen have also criticized the Council. One criticism is that the big players can afford to be there at all the meetings, or send their lawyers, creating the illusion that that is the “fishing community”.

Real fishermen have come forward to the Council in recent months to express their desperation and offer new direction for management. The Council has taken on the task of building a road in that direction aware of the odds. The service whines in response that they have no time, and there is no money. The judge knows why there is no time. Why does this federal agency, after nearly 40 years, not have adequate funding.

The Gulf of Maine is one of the nations most valuable resources. Its fisheries are the oldest, most valuable, and continuously productive industry in the nation. What can come of Gulf managers being dictated to by a brigade of government bean counters.