
Some government agencies never cease to amaze me. The current stupid award goes to NOAA and the National Marine Fisheries Service. If you read my very 1st blog, January 2013, you will quite possibly reach the conclusion that NOAA's fishing shortage is not being caused by over-fishing by commercial fisherman, but by the burgeoning seal population in the Gulf of Maine they helped to create by making them a protected species. Specifically, as a result of making seals protect, the seal population in the Gulf of Maine has skyrocketed from 10,000 in the 70’s to close to between 200,000 to 300,000 today. Let’s work with the 200,000 number. The average seal is 500 pounds and eats 6%-8% of its body wait in fish every day. Let’s work with 6%. 6% of 500 is 30 pounds/day times 200,000, equals 6,000,000 pounds of fish/day that is eaten by seals and when we do a yearly calculation, that is 2,190,000,000 pounds of fish per year. That’s $2.19 billion, with a B.
To add insult to injury, in addition to the quota's placed on fishermen, they now have to pay $700/day to have their catch monitored. That's correct, they have to pay the government to make sure their catch meets government imposed quota's every 5th day. Many fishermen are saying that this will put them out of business. The government has done an excellent job so far, since, according to WMUR, there are only 9 commercial ground fisherman left in NH.
