Fishermen list issues & problems with NOAA using outdated & wrong data to determine fish population & quota. Form NEFSA as a replacement.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has determined that fish stocks in the U.S. region of New England are on the decline due to outdated and wrong data, and as a result, are regulating fishermen into oblivion.
The revelation which was exposed after a critical examination of NOAA’s approach to managing fishing resources discovered raised serious concerns about the effectiveness and fairness of the fisheries management practices, and the impact it has on both the industry and the environment.
NOAA which has the task of managing and safeguarding the nation’s marine resources, sets catch quotas to ensure sustainable fishing practices annually.
However, it has been discovered from an investigation that the agency uses heavily outdated and incomplete information to estimate its fish and marine life population, and subsequently set fish catch quotas.
NOAA sets quotas for particular species based on data it collects from its research vessels. NOAA’s research vessel for the Northeast and the Mid-Atlantic is the Henry B. Bigelow, homeported in Newport, Rhode Island, U.S.A. The ship is currently conducting the Northeast spring bottom-trawl survey.
It was said that Bigelow only runs trawls during the daytime – and that mistake will skew the government’s read on the fish stocks.
According to the report, Juvenile haddock and blackbacks, are far more active in the evening. In the daytime they are practically dormant and hold to particular spots the trawls are unlikely to capture.
Hence, NOAA can wrongly conclude that haddock and black back juvenile populations are in decline, and issue cuts to its authorized fishing. It was gathered coincidentally, that NOAA slashed the haddock quota by as much as 82 percent effective 1 May.
It also argued that running a survey only in the evening will not give a complete outcome.
It was also reported that in New England, the start of Bigelow’s Northeast spring bottom-trawl survey was delayed three times.
As a result of the delay, NOAA was said to have planned to cut the survey area in Georges Bank and the Gulf of Maine by 30 percent, which could further skew the data the agency collects.
NOAA’s wrong estimation of the fish population is feared to have high consequences such as overfishing, depletion of fish stocks, and ecological imbalances that can harm entire marine ecosystems.
NOAA’s flawed quotas also affect fishermen and fishing communities due to unnecessary restrictions and economic hardships due to arbitrary limitations.
NOAA was urged to look into the issues raised and make use of better monitoring and scientific methods to ensure the trust it has with stakeholders, including fishermen and independent scientists is not eroded.
The agency was also urged to actively engage with stakeholders to build a more effective and equitable fisheries management framework.
A group called the New England Fishermen Stewardship Association (NEFSA), a new coalition of lobstermen, fishermen, and fishing-adjacent businesses was formed as a replacement due to the reported drawbacks of NOAA.
NEFSA aims to better manage the fishery and marine resources and sees itself as an advocacy group, open to all industry stakeholders and friends of fishing and the marine environment. They argue that federal regulators are grossly mismanaging the fisheries and pose a lethal threat to fishermen and the oceans.
NEFSA noted that fishermen cover far more water than NOAA, covering hundreds of miles of marine habitat each voyage while fishing. And despite having the best sense of the stocks, NOAA has never invited them to support its data collection efforts.
