Well, the scientists are going to adjust the fluke quota, that’s definite. Congress passed the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Reauthorization Act in its final hours of operation this past weekend. As originally proposed by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the fluke catch was scheduled to be reduced to 5.2 million pounds in 2007 – a 78% reduction potentially crippling commercial and recreational fishing, as well as all businesses ancillary to the fluke industry. The permittable catch vacillated between this draconian number – effectively putting 5000 people out of work – and 13 million pounds and anywhere in between like a ping pong ball. The original goal of NMFS, which is completely admirable and advisable – was to rebuild the fluke population to 200 million pounds by 2010.
Now, after much lobbying and pressure from the commercial industry, sport fisherman, governmental representatives (most notably our own Congressman Jim Saxton), an amendment has materialized permitting 17.1 million pounds of fluke to be caught! This represents only a 27.5% reduction in the quota.
Certainly the sustainability of this species population, along with all others, is of significant importance to maintain equilibrium within nature. But other priorities must be considered also. When the scientific community is unable to establish a viable bio-mass amount – without changing it monthly – it certainly begs the question of validity. And now an additional three years have been added to the ten year time line in which it is deemed appropriate to achieve the rebuilding of the fluke population. This additional three years represents a 30% increase of the time that has been found to be acceptable to achieve the desired result – causing all of us to again realize that pounds of fish and years for sustainability are circumspect at best.
We hope that after the effort of
the people that are affected by the actions of Congress and the National Marine
Fisheries Service, and subsequent articles, hearings and position papers, that
this will be the last of this issue – at least until 2013, when we may have to
go through it all over again.
Unfortunately, it seems that those in