F R O M T H E C R O W E ’ S N E S T
An Alliance For Change
For a few minutes heading down the stretch toward the new year it looked like there might be an opportunity for if not an all’s well, then an all’s not that awful statement on the fishing industry.
But then shrimp fishing this winter went south with an emergency shortening of the season. And not to be outdone the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) at the last minute dragged data out of it’s hat claiming New England cod is suddenly over fished, contradicting their previous statement on the stock.
There’s a hair trigger on ground fish recovery for NMFS. They have been tasked with ending over fishing by 2014. The giant bureaucracy that has metastasized around this task is not doing so well, so far. A whole generation of NMFS employees who started in on the task has progressed into retirement in the decades since they first fudged around with fisheries management.
Some of what these folks do is risk assessment. Unfortunately the risk assessment appears focused more on their personal agendas, than on the impact their actions have on fishermen, communities and small businesses in New England.
Senator John Kerry in a letter in mid December to NMFS made a very pointed argument regarding the long standing disconnect NMFS has had with the fishermen who earn their independent livings in the resource NMFS regulates.
“Only with more complete information that has been developed with the consent of all stakeholders will we be able to resolve the mistrust between fishermen and federal regulators over the science that forms the basis of fishery management decisions” wrote Kerry.
Kerry noted his 26 years experience in the Senate dealing with fisheries issues. The comments he made about his experience over the years mirrors in many ways the comments fishermen have made about the impossibility of communicating with the agency and the science it uses.
The Senator in no uncertain terms laid out the immediate need for collaborative action in the face of the “potentially disastrous consequences” of GOM cod catch limits dropping from an already low 12,000 MT to 1,000 MT.
As important as it is that Kerry stepped up to the plate on this NMFS is a remarkably unresponsive foot dragging agency. This challenge may need an alliance that can put that foot firmly where it belongs.