Skitterpop
04-05-2006, 01:35 PM
April 2, 2006
Murky Maine decision
By MOLLY BENJAMIN
Readers might have seen a recent article on the small-boat Maine fishermen who have traveled to Cape Cod waters seeking scallops, which are abundant and fetch a good price. Without this fishery, the Maine gang would be waiting in welfare lines.
That's because they haven't been able to fish for cod or flounder off Maine for a couple of years due to a colossal mistake by federal managers.
Here's what happened: Fish managers were worried about stocks on Georges Bank, so they shut down hundreds of square miles. But they kept inshore Maine waters open, where fish stocks were in decent shape. Since offshore waters were closed, the big, beefy boats built for 14-day trips came streaming toward the Maine coast. The federal fish managers squeezed them into one area - even they were warned that such an approach was dangerous.
Imagine the crowd of boats off Maine. It was like directing everyone in Gillette Stadium - home of our beloved Patriots - out of their seats and squeezing them into one locker room. Or making everyone use one hot dog vendor. Pretty soon, the hot dog guy is gonna be flat out of doggies, and there won't be a sausage within miles of the joint.
Which is why Maine's inshore waters are now closed to fishing. Federal management saw to it that the place was scooped clean.
In the same vein, some scallop grounds are now closed and some are open. Since everybody and their brother is now scalloping (it's one of the few fisheries still open and vaguely profitable) we now have a mess o' scallop boats all concentrated in the same places - again. Do you think the people who become fish managers are rotated from desks at FEMA?
Murky Maine decision
By MOLLY BENJAMIN
Readers might have seen a recent article on the small-boat Maine fishermen who have traveled to Cape Cod waters seeking scallops, which are abundant and fetch a good price. Without this fishery, the Maine gang would be waiting in welfare lines.
That's because they haven't been able to fish for cod or flounder off Maine for a couple of years due to a colossal mistake by federal managers.
Here's what happened: Fish managers were worried about stocks on Georges Bank, so they shut down hundreds of square miles. But they kept inshore Maine waters open, where fish stocks were in decent shape. Since offshore waters were closed, the big, beefy boats built for 14-day trips came streaming toward the Maine coast. The federal fish managers squeezed them into one area - even they were warned that such an approach was dangerous.
Imagine the crowd of boats off Maine. It was like directing everyone in Gillette Stadium - home of our beloved Patriots - out of their seats and squeezing them into one locker room. Or making everyone use one hot dog vendor. Pretty soon, the hot dog guy is gonna be flat out of doggies, and there won't be a sausage within miles of the joint.
Which is why Maine's inshore waters are now closed to fishing. Federal management saw to it that the place was scooped clean.
In the same vein, some scallop grounds are now closed and some are open. Since everybody and their brother is now scalloping (it's one of the few fisheries still open and vaguely profitable) we now have a mess o' scallop boats all concentrated in the same places - again. Do you think the people who become fish managers are rotated from desks at FEMA?