Yesterday, Schwaab announced several recommendations in response to the new report, including increasing direct contact with fishermen, improving scientific collaboration with the industry, and making data collection easier so rule makers can work with the most recent information.
Schwaab was clear that real change won’t be immediate.
“The challenges we face in New England, home of the nation’s oldest fishing communities, did not happen overnight,’’ he said. “Lasting solutions will take some time.’’
The review comes as April 30 nears, marking the end of the first fishing year under a controversial management system in which most New England fishermen were divided into groups, called sectors, and divided an allotted catch of each fish species. The system aims to give fishermen flexibility as species rebuild, but some fishermen say the allotments were set unfairly low and are killing the industry.
The review released yesterday followed a December 2009 letter to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke by John Pappalardo, chairman of the New England Fishery Management Council.
Pappalardo asserted that the tangled bureaucracy simply wasn’t up to the task of enforcing the many new requirements of the nation’s fishing laws, saying the system is driven by “process and protocol,’’ not outcomes.
The review was conducted by Preston Pate, former chairman of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, and included interviews with 179 people involved in management — including fishermen, federal regulators, and researchers.
His report assessed the relationship between federal regulators, scientists, and the regional management council.
The review praised the “dedicated staff within each organization,’’ as well as the transparency of the rule-making process and increasing scientific collaboration with fishermen.
But it found efforts were being duplicated throughout the system, and said they lacked a shared strategy and vision for success.
It called for “defining clear, objective criteria for determining the success of a management decision.’’
Pate’s report said regulators needed to focus on serving the fishing industry and suggested that the fisheries service reestablish “development of the commercial fishing industry’’ as part of its mission.
It also said regulators need to build confidence among fishermen that the data they collect on the fish stocks are sound, and also shrink the gap between when the data are collected, and when they can actually be used by decision makers.
Pate’s report looked at past reviews, and it noted the reviews had arrived at “similar conclusions.’’
“This indicates that little change had been made over the years, and that for improvements to be made all stakeholders must work together,’’ it said.
