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LFM Posts

Getting it right: The Mass. draft ocean management plan

10/11/09 15:36 Filed in: Environment
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On December 31, Massachusetts will become the first state with a management plan for its roughly 2,100 square miles of ocean and the often-competing interests of conservationists, the fishing industry, recreation and development.

Since June this plan has been circulating in draft form for the public’s consideration. The nearly two-volume tome is rich in data, but many fear it doesn’t go far enough to protect the Commonwealth’s more delicate marine assets—the so-called “special, sensitive or unique” (SSU) resources the plan identifies.

“The big problem with the plan—it is not really a plan,” said Mason Weinrich, executive director and chief scientist of the Whale Center of New England, based in Gloucester. “What they have done is gather a really valuable series of data sets to understand where these areas may be. But there isn’t really any more protection than what was already there.” Read More...

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A Herring Quota Debacle

17/10/09 20:32 Filed in: Fishing Industry
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A proposal to cut the herring quota nearly in half for the next three years has the fishing fleet, as well as lobstermen (and women) from Maine to New Jersey, concerned. (Herring, a little too fishy for some palates, is a favorite for baiting lobster traps.) Read More...

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