Our view: Fishing science project should offer answers

Gov. Deval Patrick's promise to press for a rewriting of federal fishing regulations stands as good news for the industry and communities on the North Shore and Cape Ann. But while Patrick vowed to work with his contacts high within the Obama administration — identifying new Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke, the former governor of Washington, and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel — perhaps the more encouraging long-term prospects rest with his commitment to carry out a scientific study through the marine science and technology center at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

Given the perilous state of the fishing industry, it's important to try to either verify or debunk the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and National Marine Fisheries' Service science that's been used to set policy in the past.

NMFS officials and fishermen differ about the government agency's regulations and enforcement policies, but their core differences are really rooted in science. NMFS insists on regulating all stocks within the New England fishery based on status of the weakest-recovering stock, while fishermen and their backers understandably question why they should have to forgo fishing of stocks that have effectively recovered. While NMFS and NOAA continue to insist that there are continuing signs of "overfishing," fishermen insist there is clear evidence of recovery in many stocks.

At a conference last week in New Bedford, Patrick set a 30-day window for the research proposal from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth's School of Marine Science and Technology — and made urgent the demand for a funding and strategic game plan for the project. And its value was not lost on Mary Griffin, the governor's state commissioner of marine fisheries. She noted that the alternative science research could well prove that NMFS' science is "not gospel."

Only time will tell, of course, whether such a project will indeed refute the NMFS' data. Any new data from the Dartmouth project could well verify what NMFS and NOAA have claimed all along. But the research work called for by the governor last week should provide numbers and other data with the level of credibility the fishermen deserve. That, indeed, is long overdue.

http://www.salemnews.com/puopinion/l...yword=topstory