Comment from Michael Good, MS

Fisheries Woe’s Start On Maineland by Michael J. Good Guest Column Bar Harbor Times Nov.13 2003 Reprinted June 21, 2013 Recently there has been a lot of press time given to the contentious issue of ground-fishing in the Gulf of Maine. Everybody connected with the fishing industry is talking about ground-fishing because an important deadline is fast approaching that will “hopefully” lead to sustainable fisheries that are good for the environment and good for Maine’s economy in the long term. The deadline was set in place by the 1996 Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act also known as the Sustainable Fisheries Act. The Act is considered a major step in creating a new framework for achieving sustainable levels of “take” in the commercial fisheries of the United States. It is meant to prevent the recurrence of overfishing, reducing by-catch and protecting essential fish habitat in the future. Target allowable catches continue to be exceeded in the Gulf of Maine at a level corresponding to an annual mortality rate of over 60%. (Cushman 1996, New England Fishery Management Council 1996, Commercial Fisheries News, 1997) This is not acceptable and definitely not sustainable. One of the most exciting aspects of Magunson is that it mandates “no-take zones” or protected areas in the Gulf of Maine where ecologically significant sanctuaries are protected from the disturbances caused by commercial fishing activity. Currently there are no such areas in the Gulf of Maine bioregion. A comparison of protected-area coverage on land and sea in the US shows that there are about 1500 times more designated protection for no-take wilderness on US lands than for no-take protection on U.S. waters. These protected areas make sense from an ecological and economic perspective because they protect core areas of biodiversity in the ocean as well as enhance the overall abundance of fish populations of commercial value. This same approach has been attempted