Mayor appeals to fishery council for relief

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January 30, 2013 12:00 AM

NEW BEDFORD ? Mayor Jon Mitchell is asking fishing regulators in the Northeast to get aggressive about softening the blow of quota cutbacks for cod, haddock and yellowtail flounder.

Mitchell sent a letter Monday to the New England Fishery Management Council, which is meeting this week in Portsmouth, N.H., with several strong suggestions, including finding out why groundfish regulation has admittedly failed.

He supported the request of the Massachusetts congressional delegation that NOAA immediately identify ways that the fishing industry can be helped under the Magnuson-Stevens Act that governs fishing regulation.

"More than at any other point in memory, the fishing industry needs the government to do everything in its power to prevent or mitigate the impact of the impending cuts," Mitchell wrote. Action must be taken, he said, "to keep the industry alive."

The council's agenda for today is exclusively the groundfish issue. Alarmingly low stock assessments have prompted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to propose quota cutbacks of as much as 86 percent in the fishing year beginning May 1. Quota that low would end fishing, say fishermen.

Those assessments have been challenged, but NOAA Regional Administrator John Bullard stood by them in a letter to the council last week. The letter was to deny another round of interim measures pending new assessments, something he said the law does not allow.

Mitchell also asked the council to reconsider its computations about rebuilding targets for groundfish stocks with an eye toward mitigating the impending crisis.

Finally, with the new fishing season fast approaching, Mitchell called on the council to re-analyze its existing model for predicting fish stocks, and the Northeast Fisheries Science Center team with UMass Dartmouth's School for Marine Science and Technology to conduct a short-term survey of yellowtail.

Mitchell said he is grateful to the council for concluding at its special meeting in December that a quota of 1,150 metric tons for Georges Bank yellowtail flounder is appropriate. He asked the council to pay close attention to whether that quota is implemented, and to urge NOAA to approach Canada about reconsidering the overall Georges Bank yellowtail quota for 2013.

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