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New England fishermen want hearings on stewardship of marine resources
By SUSAN WEST The petition points to the federal agency’s failure to incorporate the impact of climate change in the stock assessments used to develop fishery management plans and harvest regulations. “NMFS has failed to promulgate any comprehensive methodology for assessing the impacts of such environmental variability on reproductive patterns, migration routes, and ecosystem relationships,” reads the petition. “NMFS instead has placed the entire onus of resource depletion on commercial fishermen with constraints recklessly causing severe harm and suffering to the fishing community,” the petition states. “The more I looked into this, the clearer it became that government hasn’t done its part in applying the best available science in resource assessments,” said Gene Soccolich, author of the petition and policy advisor to the Port of New Bedford Business Alliance in Massachusetts. “A major piece of information has been left out of the equation,” he said. Soccolich said he wrote the petition after reading a U.S. Government Accountability Office report that criticized the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the parent agency of NMFS, and other agencies for not addressing climate change. Research indicates that warming water temperatures can alter the distribution of cold water and warm water species. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Beaufort Laboratory found 29 new species of tropical fishes and a decrease in the abundance of temperate species in a reef fish community off North Carolina over a 15-year period of increased water temperatures. When waters warm, habitats can become more attractive to non-native species. Researchers caution that invasive species like the Indo-Pacific red lionfish that now thrives in reef habitat from Florida to North Carolina could pose a risk to native marine species. Earlier this year, fishermen on the southern Outer Banks found their nets clogged and their lines weighed down by colonies of sauerkraut bryozoan, a tropical animal never previously seen off Hatteras and Ocracoke islands. Scientists believe that higher water temperatures and higher salinity levels contributed to the organism’s appearance this year. Scientists also warn that increasing temperatures and rising sea levels will change estuarine habitats, altering or destroying the wetlands that are critical nursery areas for more than 90 percent of North Carolina’s important commercial marine species, including flounder, red drum, and shrimp. Recent research by Brian Rothschild of the University of Massachusetts shows that environmental factors played a more significant role in the collapse of the cod fishery than previously thought. Rothschild’s research points to changing water temperatures that disrupted the supply of plankton, the food for the capelin and herring that cod feed on. “These environmental changes were probably as important in influencing declines in cod abundance as the effects of fishing,” Rothschild said in June when an abstract of his research appeared in the journal of the American Fisheries Society. Rothschild said that the strong influence of environmental factors on fish stocks suggests that a reevaluation of fisheries management may be necessary. He noted that rebuilding fish stocks within a specific number of years might not be feasible if climate change is permanently altering the ocean ecosystem. NMFS Southeast Fisheries Science Center did not respond to a request for information on whether they incorporate climate change impacts into marine resource assessments before press time. Gene Soccolich said interest in the petition has spread from New Bedford to other Massachusetts ports and to other states. “The petition drive is gaining its own traction, not only with commercial fishermen but also with waterfront businesses and communities,” he said. The petition is posted at www.portnewbedford.org. 
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