To the editor:
One only needs to review the dramatic results we have achieved over the last 20 years to observe that over the long haul, stocks can and will recover.
They have. It was fishermen who suggested and supported mesh size increases and their respective fish size increases, to dramatically increase juvenile escapement.
It was fishermen who designed nets to virtually eliminate groundfish retention and greatly increase size selectivity in the shrimp and whiting small-mesh fisheries.
It was fishermen who have been inextricably entwined in groundfish, tuna, monkfish, and many more successful co-operative research projects, that have greatly increased our understandings of gear selectivity, migratory habits, reproductive rates, and our overall interaction with the marine environment — all programs gutted by the current National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration budget.
And it was fishermen who proposed viable alternatives all along to government proposals that, while being within the accepted confidence margins, were vetoed by NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service — which would then, predictably, accept its own proposal after brow-beating the New England Fishery Management Council into submission.
The overall groundfish biomass has recovered to its highest levels in nearly 30 years, and those fishermen who've survived the last 25 years have done the heavy lifting.
Those who haven't, perhaps, have borne the heaviest burden of all. When you do the "old math," NOAA's management philosophy seems to be, "Same old carrot, just a longer stick."
And to reach it, you only need long arms, long enough arms, to dig into deep enough pockets.
PAUL COHAN
Gloucester
