The big picture on bluefin

[LuckyLady]

Editorial

The big picture on bluefin

Three years ago, then-NMFS chief Bill Hogarth proposed a fishing moratorium for the Eastern Atlantic bluefin at a meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas.

Obviously and regrettably, he did not have enough support to push the ban through. However, what he did have was an understanding of U.S. fisheries and the state of global fisheries on the whole.

A lot of people in the industry grumbled about some of Hogarth's maneuvers. But with him as the leader of the U.S. fishing industry's regulating agency, fishermen at least had a fishing advocate who was working toward making things right for the industry, from stocks to docks.

Now fishermen are contending with NOAA director Jane Lubchenco, whose every action in office seems to leave her constituents reeling.

This week, Lubchenco is attending the annual ICCAT meeting, and her comments seem to bypass the big picture: "When there is uncertainty in science we believe that it is important to err on the side of caution. We believe that it is appropriate therefore to seek lower TACs for bluefin tuna for both sides of the Atlantic."

Only someone who does not grasp that Western Atlantic fishermen have been following the precautionary principle and fishing legally under strict quotas in an effort to preserve their stock would suggest that the solution to saving bluefin is to reduce quotas on both sides of the Atlantic.

Only someone who doesn't know Mediterranean countries historically overfish their quota with no regard for bluefin's longevity would imagine that quota reductions could possibly be a long-term solution to the problem of illegal fishing.

I'm not sure where the uncertainty in the science may be. I don't believe we can deny that the bluefin's decline in the Eastern Atlantic is a persisting problem. U.S. fishermen have accepted restrictions with the hope that preservation on one side of the ocean could save the stock as a whole. But we cannot go it alone in a global fishery. What we need is enforcement of quotas on the other side of the ocean.

In the meantime, it would be nice to reward the fishermen-stewards of the resource on this side of the Atlantic with an incremental bump in their quota following an unprecedented season on the U.S. and Canadian east coasts.

While a U.S. delegation of senators and representatives (from both sides of the aisle) seeks to "pursue a modest, yet scientifically justifiable increase in the total allowable catch of western Atlantic bluefin tuna," fishermen continue to suffer under the direction of a leader apparently disinterested in the past, present and future of a great American industry.
Thank you for your time.

Jessica Hathaway
Editor in Chief, National Fisherman
www.nationalfisherman.com

[Fishfinder]

Lubchenco can KMA!!

Capt. Joe Shute

[LuckyLady]

PLEASE POST YOUR VIEW!

YOUR VIEW: EDF, NOAA have anti-fishing agenda

[Sushi50]

The Oabama administration has installed extremely liberal, anti-fishing, anti-hunting, and anti-human-presence leaders in just about every Fed Gov administration possible.

For NOAA/NMFS, Obama's chosen leaders are Jane Lubchenko and Monica Medina. See http://www.noaa.gov/leadership.html for the NOAA bios. Also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Klain for Monica Medina's liberal Dem husband's info. No doubt these are well-educated, intelligent people, but they have extremist liberal agendas that include the elimination of any activity that kills fish, such as fishing. They both have Pew backgrounds and are being driven by Pew and other radical, enviro agendas.

I don't mind smart fishing regulations that improve fish stocks and ultimately give us better fishing and restored access once stocks have rebounded, but that's not their real goal as further evidenced by Jane throwing us under the bus at ICCAT this year. Regardless of 20 years of us reducing our bluefin TAC and promising increased TAC once the fish start rebounding, they are going to continue to find reasons and ways of further reducing our quotas, seasons, and other fishing-related parameters.

Vote for your fishing rights and for people who will listen to you and do things that reflect a balance of your desires and the health of your fisheries and businesses. This business of Obama and the far-libarel Dems doing what they want when they want, as they've recently done with some portions of health care, our annual budget and national debt, fishing, and other matters, has got to stop.

[Artson D]

O.B.A.M.A
One Big A-S Mistake America!

[BeaufortTuna]

This should anger you some more. We are at war plain and simple. Lubchenco and the NGO's will not stop till nobody is fishing, commercial or recreational. Tuna, seabass, grouper, snapper, fluke, tautog, porgies all being taken away from american fisherman.

http://www.savingseafood.org/interna...en-at-i-2.html

[LuckyLady]

O.B.A.M.A
One Big A-S Mistake America!

Thats the best I have seen to date!

[MarkP]

1-20-2013, End of an Error...

MarkP

[SteveK]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...WhatsNewsThird

Now they are using even more bad technology and guess work....... this seems to be getting even worse.

[LuckyLady]

Here is a thread created by another member of ours same thing to the link posted above