Sustaining Our Fisheries

by Dave Shirley: February 21, 2012 11:43 AM | COMMENTS (0) | | SHARE

I picked up a recent copy of National Fisherman magazine.  I hadn’t seen a copy in years and I picked it up for a couple of reasons; (1) as a sportfisherman, catch and release, I like to see what the fisheries and commercial fisherman are doing, and this is their magazine, (2) at our post office, if you get a duplicate copy of a magazine or you get one you don’t want to read, you leave it on the counter to see if it might interest another person to pick it up, reuse/recycle, (3) I watch my share of The Deadliest Catch and (4) the subtitle of the magazine is Informed Fishermen-Profitable Fisheries-Sustainable Fish (people, profit, planet – Triple Bottom-line).

So reading through the magazine, I came across a short article by Sam Rauch, acting director of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS – “nimfis” as it is know in the marine fisheries arena).   The title of the article is “Crossing the border to successfully manage fish stocks.”  He starts out by saying “U.S. and Canadian fishermen and natural resources managers face the same challenges.”  But he really had me at “Driven by our common interest in sustainability (my emphasis), we have developed a close working relationship over the years with a long record of success.”

It only goes to show that we cannot do this alone, even if we wanted to.  The resource does not know the boundaries.  They just wander all over the place crossing into other jurisdictions, international waters that may have little regulation, or wherever the food supply or migratory patterns take them. 

A couple of the examples of working together that Mr. Rauch cites are a shared commercial fisheries resource, the yellowtail flounder, and protected species, like the Atlantic sturgeon.  As to the yellowtail flounder, joint Canadian/U.S. legislation was passed to increase the U.S. flounder fisherman’s catch limits, while still protecting the transboundary stock.  For the sturgeon, there is a developing Canadian caviar industry in the St. Lawrence River, and the U.S. and Canada are planning a strategy to be able to sustain the stock of sturgeons while accommodating this new interest. 

Mr. Rauch ends the article by saying, “As we face threats from climate change and growing interest in offshore siting of alternative energy projects, a strong working relationship with Canadian fishermen and resource managers will be key to ensuring that marine species and their habitats are protected and fishing opportunities maximized.”  It has to be a balance between the factors of the triple bottom-line in order for people, planet or profits to sustain.  That message is clear to us, but needs to be shouted from the roof tops or shoreline as the case may be.