On August 3, the Massachusetts newspaper South Coast Today posted an article about changes in fish stock surveys.

The article reported:

In what one advocate called “a potential sea change” for the commercial fishing industry, NOAA Fisheries announced intentions Tuesday to shift all or part of long-controversial stock surveys from its Bigelow research vessel to commercial boats, saying a transition over the next five years could bring “greater shared confidence” in survey results.

“We have to learn to work better with the (commercial fishing) industry — we have to open up better lines of communication,” Dr. Bill Karp, director of NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole, said of the transition.

How fish stocks are measured has been one of the biggest points of contention for years between governmental regulators and commercial fishermen, as survey results affect seasonal catch limits, quotas for various species and more. The latest questions about NOAA’s Henry R. Bigelow research ship arose this spring, for example, when maintenance problems delayed NOAA’s spring survey from April to June.

Don Cuddy, program director for the Center for Sustainable Fisheries in New Bedford, said fishermen also have felt the Bigelow is unable to accurately count “flatfish,” such as yellowtail flounder, because of the type of gear it tows.

The bottom line here is very simple–the commercial fishermen know a whole lot more about the fish population than the government does. Most commercial fishermen have spent their entire lives fishing and understand things the government has not even considered. Most commercial fishermen are conscious of the environment because they realize that if they overfish a certain type of fish, they lose their livelihood. Life was better all the way around before the government began to attempt to take control of the commercial fishing industry. All they are succeeding in doing is putting small family fishing boats out of business, and those family fishing boats are the conscientious fisherman who do not overfish. The conscientious fishermen know how to catch specific fish and how to measure specific fish populations–the government does not.