Painting of a former Ocean City Dragger.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
NGO wants to ban trawling
Unelected NGO Official Wants to Ban Trawling
Merrill, our fish dealer, attended a turtle meeting. Some of the fishermen, like my husband, had worked 15 hours and were too tired to go. A woman from a Non-Governmental Organization brought proposed government regulations to protect turtles, which are already under protective regulation. The first option was closing all trawling.
Trawlers here land flounder for food and horse shoe crabs for medical use. They seldom come upon a turtle, although the turtle population is increasing. Turtles are omnivorous predators, who attack pots and nets to get to the fish.
The woman claimed there were 1,000 trawlers in the area. Merrill pointed out that there were only three active trawlers from Ocean City, a few more that sometimes docked in Chincoteague and no others between New Jersey and Hampton Roads, VA. She countered that there were 1,000 licenses. Merrill explained that this was obsolete information and these licenses were inactive. I suspect few of them have quotas, if there are even that many licenses left for trawlers. I don’t know how large an area this covers, but it sounds like the entire east coast.
The lady proposed a turtle excluder device in the nets. Merrill and a trawler captain explained they wouldn’t be able to land horse shoe crabs with this device in the net.
The people from the government and this lady from the NGO were paid to attend this meeting. Fishermen weren’t. We elect people to make our laws and hire bureaucrats to make regulations, but the government now allows environmental and other NGOs to make the laws. These un-elected officials are given power they shouldn’t have.
Merrill, our fish dealer, attended a turtle meeting. Some of the fishermen, like my husband, had worked 15 hours and were too tired to go. A woman from a Non-Governmental Organization brought proposed government regulations to protect turtles, which are already under protective regulation. The first option was closing all trawling.
Trawlers here land flounder for food and horse shoe crabs for medical use. They seldom come upon a turtle, although the turtle population is increasing. Turtles are omnivorous predators, who attack pots and nets to get to the fish.
The woman claimed there were 1,000 trawlers in the area. Merrill pointed out that there were only three active trawlers from Ocean City, a few more that sometimes docked in Chincoteague and no others between New Jersey and Hampton Roads, VA. She countered that there were 1,000 licenses. Merrill explained that this was obsolete information and these licenses were inactive. I suspect few of them have quotas, if there are even that many licenses left for trawlers. I don’t know how large an area this covers, but it sounds like the entire east coast.
The lady proposed a turtle excluder device in the nets. Merrill and a trawler captain explained they wouldn’t be able to land horse shoe crabs with this device in the net.
The people from the government and this lady from the NGO were paid to attend this meeting. Fishermen weren’t. We elect people to make our laws and hire bureaucrats to make regulations, but the government now allows environmental and other NGOs to make the laws. These un-elected officials are given power they shouldn’t have.
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