The world of Northeast American fisheries may have felt a seismic shift in the wake of the three-day meeting last week of the New England Fisheries Management Council. But it is much too soon for either side in the endless fishery management debate to claim a victory.
Major non-profit environmental organizations are lamenting the decision by the council to recommend reopening 5,000 square miles of Georges Bank, an area known as the Northern Edge, to fishing after a closure of two decades.
Peter Shelley, senior attorney for the Conservation Law Foundation, charged that the council ignored years of scientific data and analysis and “caved to industry pressures” regarding Georges Bank. (The council did approve four other areas of habitat protection.)
“The council hammered the final nail into the coffin of what could have been a landmark victory for ocean habitats protection in New England,” Shelley wrote on his organization’s web site.
Dr. Sarah Smith, a member of the Fisheries Solutions Center at the Environmental Defense Fund, wrote The Standard-Times in an e-mail, “We are disappointed that the council chose short-term economic gains for a few over the long-term health of the fishery, particularly struggling stocks such as Georges Bank cod and yellowtail flounder.
“The Council’s preferred alternative overlooks our best scientific information, and perhaps most troubling, would virtually eliminate protection for sensitive areas that serve as critical habitats for juvenile cod and other groundfish.”
She gave a foreshadowing of what will happen between now and the time that NOAA Fisheries makes a final decision about Georges Bank:
“Having an effective network of closed areas is essential to protect vulnerable habitats, increase productivity of groundfish stocks, and guard against growing uncertainty created by climate change, and we are hopeful that the National Marine Fisheries Service will reject the council’s decision.”
In other words, this isn’t over yet.
Among those in the fishing industry and many scientists, the council’s decision, passed by a one-vote majority, was something of an acknowledgement that having the area closed was accomplishing little while sacrificing a lot.
New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell described what’s in the currently closed area as the “mother lode of scallops” in the world. Dr. Kevin Stokesbury, professor of marine science at the UMass Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology, and the chief innovator of video method of counting scallop populations, said that his recent surveys show an abundance of very large, high-value scallops in the closed area recommended for opening.
Dr. Brian Rothschild, professor emeritus at SMAST, backed the council’s decision. After 20 years of discussions, he said, it’s clear that “there is no evidence the area closed was having any effect” on cod and yellowtail flounder populations.
John Bullard, the former New Bedford Mayor who is head of NOAA Fisheries in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic, said that a lot of ground lies between today and the day NOAA issues its final rule.
“I expressed serious concerns that we had with the vote that they took on Georges Bank,” he said.
“It doesn’t mean we disapprove or partially disapprove. We don’t know. I have an open mind about this.”
State Rep. William Straus, D-Mattapoisett, who wrote the council a letter supporting the reopening of the Northern Edge, recalled the scenario in the days when Stokesbury’s scallop surveys were upending NOAA attitudes toward scallop populations.
“Even with clear science, there was enormous pressure at the secretary of commerce level,” Straus said.
Bullard said that the process of validating or rejecting the council’s recommendation will take many months. He told The Standard-Times he expects that the formal filing of the recommendation will happen in the fall, and the NOAA review will take until April of 2016.
That’s a great deal of time for the kind of lobbying that is bound to happen in the coming months.
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