The New England fishing industry : a basis for management

Abstract

Fish and fishermen appear to be in a serious decline in New England. The haddock are overfished, inshore herring stocks are depleted, yellowtail flounder and lobster are scarce. The popular image is of grizzled fishermen, their boats chipped, scarred, old-fashioned hulks of wood tied up two and three abreast along the rotting wharves and piers of New England's depressed port towns. In this research project, we wanted to determine the state of the New England fishing industry and to propose acceptable methods for the management of the fishery. During our early discussions with the fishing industry people, we mentioned that we were interested in limited effort programs as they might be applied to New England fishermen. We carefully, and probably tediously, explained the "theory of limited effort" and we were generally thought to be daft. We were told we had things backwards--that the fishing industry needed more fish, more men, more boats - and that the way to accomplish this was to get a 200-mile fishing limit and kick the foreigners out. One of these wishes has come true - in the spring of 1976, P.L. 94-265 established a 200-mile fishing zone off the United States, with regional management councils to make management plans and allocate the resources first to United States fishermen, with surpluses to foreign fishermen.