Some NGO's cry foul over change to Calif. sardine management when it contradicts their view
SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Opinion] By D.B. Pleschner - December 16, 2014 -
(D.B. Pleschner is executive director of the California Wetfish Producers Association.)
Recently the Pacific Fishery Management Council voted to change the sardine harvest control rule, increasing the upper limit of the sardine harvest fraction from 15 percent to 20 percent.
The decision came after an exhaustive set of scientific workshops and analysis involving more than 60 people, held over the past two years to respond to a research paper that suggested that sea surface temperature (SST) measured at Scripps Pier in Southern California, which had been employed as a proxy for sardine recruitment, was no longer correlated with recruitment success.
But apparently this fact was lost on environmental activists who cried foul to the media, claiming that sardines are crashing, and the management response to the crisis is to just fish harder.
Claims that the council voted for a more aggressive fishing rate miss the point...
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