FROM THE CROWE’S NEST

A Stiff

The fishery that drew our ancestors out of their European hovels, got them into boats and lured them across what was then a much bigger ocean, is now on the ropes. Fishermen have been forced to take the fall for this state of affairs in the ground fishery. Grouped together under this term are those with a hand line over the side and the four hundred foot ship owned by investors whose fishing interest is a return on an investment read from a quarterly statement.

Fish reproduce at the same rate they did when the ancestors first arrived to find waters thick with fish. Engineering, however, has changed. The Magnuson-Stevens Act based management system, set up not to preserve the fishery based on biological realities, but on geopolitical and national economic posturing in the 1970’s, is again being squabbled over in “our” congress.

Well, reality appears to be setting in with “management”. Since they can no longer string the managed along with their shell game, they have decided to throw in their towel and agree that their plans have not worked.

So, what’s next?

The bad news is whatever Magnuson-Stevens looks like this time, after the politicians get through with it, a new management plan will have to be hung on the same existing management structure that the last plan was hung on.
  
The good news is that there is a lot of interest in community based management. This may offer a more hands on policy that fishermen have lacked over the decades.

The recognition that fishermen need to be more organized to be effective in getting the system they need and getting what they want from the system they have is a positive sign.

There is a lot about the fish stocks, and the ocean that scientists and managers just do not understand. Having a plan that is flexible enough to accommodate that shortfall could make it more realistic. The rigid, my way or the highway, slow out of the corner and slower on its feet management plan has to be rejected or the new one will end up like the last one. A stiff.