Guest view: Bycatch from midwater gear hurts fish stocks

February 23, 2008

New Bedford Standard-Times
February 23, 2008
“Guest View”

By Rich Burgess
Mr. Burgess is a commercial fisherman out of Gloucester. He lives in Manchester.

The midwater trawl industry has been attempting to cloud the public’s vision recently, as seen in the recent opinion piece from Dave Ellenton and Billie Schofield (“Science backs midwater fishermen,” Feb. 10) regarding management of the herring fishery off our coast.

First of all, let it be clear to your readers that the “conspiracy theory” story that the midwater lobby and their public relations firm have been spreading about who is leading this fight for better management of the herring fishery is a bunch of nonsense. Fishermen (both commercial and recreational), whale watchers and others who work on the water have been working together since at least 2001 to address the problems the herring midwater trawl fleet was causing throughout the Gulf of Maine.

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Rich’s article also ran in the 2/24 Portsmouth (NH) Herald and the 2/26 Gloucester Daily Times