FEderal Officals Delay New Fishing Restrictions
 

More good news for the comms.....

Federal officials delay new fishing restrictions

By Beth Daley, Globe Staff, 1/15/2003

New England fishermen got a reprieve from tough new restrictions on their
livelihood yesterday, as federal regulators allowed up to five extra years
before some decimated fish populations must return to healthy levels. As a
result, cutbacks in the catch of cod and other ground fish are likely to be
far less drastic than once feared.

The delay in rebuilding fishing stocks angered environmentalists, who saw it
as a retreat from necessary steps to permanently end overfishing off the New
England coast. They accused the National Marine Fisheries Service of putting
political pressure from fishermen ahead of the long-term conservation of the
fish.

''I don't know what the agency knows now that it didn't know three to five
months ago when fishermen were demanding they restart the clock on
rebuilding. It's pure politics,'' said Peter Shelley of the Conservation Law
Foundation in Boston, the lead organization that filed a 2000 lawsuit
resulting in the restrictions.

A US district judge judge had already postponed the start date for fishing
limits aimed at rebuilding fish populations, but she did not change the 2009
deadline for populations to return to sustainable levels. As a result,
fishermen were predicting the loss of more than half of New England's small
boat fleet by May 2004 to meet that timetable. Under the National Marine
Fisheries Service decision yesterday, some of the region's ground fish
stocks won't have to be rebuilt until 2014, likely allowing regulators to
reach the targets with more modest limits.

''It's wonderful news,'' said Angela Sanfilippo, president of the Gloucester
Fishermen's Wives Association. ''This is a fairer way to rebuild the
stocks.''

New findings last year dramatically altered scientists' expectations about
how large fish populations can grow, which ultimately triggered a slowdown
in the rebuilding timetable. Since scientists doubled or even tripled the
target population for cod and other important species, regulators said it
was only fair that they allow more time for the fish to reach the more
ambitious targets.

Bill Hogarth, director of the National Marine Fisheries Service, said he
estimated about half of the 19 stocks managed by New England will have their
population target deadlines extended to 2014. Other than cod, however, he
was uncertain what species the extension would include. He said the move was
legal.

''Look at the stocks, we're making progress,'' said Hogarth. ''We changed
the goalposts, however. This is the responsible way to go.''

But frustrated environmentalists who have been trying for years to get New
England fishermen to adhere to a timeline to rebuild stocks were outraged.
In 1999, NMFS agreed they would replenish New England fisheries within 10
years so they would be safe for commercial fishing over the long term.
Shelley, a Conservation Law Foundation attorney, said Hogarth's announcement
caught him by surprise because he had believed that the government was
simply peer-reviewing the science that supported plans to rebuild by 2009 -
not deciding to change the deadline entirely.

''All of a sudden, [Hogarth] made a political call,'' Shelley said.

Hogarth defended his decisions, saying it was neither backsliding nor for
any reason other than fairness.

New England fishermen have faced a growing web of restrictions as regulators
try to solve the problem of too many boats going after too few fish. In the
last decade, fishermen who go after cod and other bottom-hugging species
have had the number of days they can fish for the species reduced to 70.
Some of the region's fish stocks are beginning to show signs of recovery,
but scientists say they are still at low levels - by one government
estimate, fishermen have to slice pressure by two-thirds. Two years ago, a
US judge ruled in favor of the Conservation Law Foundation and other
environmental groups who charged the government with overfishing and ordered
the tough new restrictions.

But those rules were relaxed twice, most recently after questions were
raised about the accuracy of the government's fish-counting methods. Now,
some environmentalists, looking at the long history of obsfucation by
fishermen to drastically reduce fishing, fear the delays might continue even
later than 2014.

''This is completely outrageous. There is no basis in law for it and it's
bad for the environment,'' said Eric Bilsky, senior attorney for Oceana,
which helped CLF and other groups sue the government in 2000 to fix the
ground fish crisis. ''The population might crash because of inappropriate
fishing levels.''