URI professor seeks better regulations against illegal fishing

04/22/05 - A University of Rhode Island professor wants better regulations and enforcement practices in place to reduce the amount of illegal fishing."[Illegal fishing] is a very complex problem," Jon G. Sutinen, professor of environmental and natural resource economics, said. "It's not going to be easily resolved."

According to the Lacey Act Amendments of 1981, "It is unlawful for any person to import, export, transport, sell, receive, acquire, or purchase any fish or wildlife or plant taken, possessed, transported, or sold in violation of any law, treaty, or regulation of the United States or in violation of any Indian tribal law; to import, export, transport, sell, receive, acquire, or purchase in interstate or foreign commerce... any fish or wildlife taken, possessed, transported, or sold in violation of any law or regulation of any State or in violation of any foreign law, or any plant taken, possessed, transported, or sold in violation of any law or regulation of any state."

The regulation of fishing varies from area to area. According to Sutinen, some areas are either restricted or closed off to fishers to allow marine life to reproduce and replenish their numbers.

According to the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, commercial fisheries in the state have restrictions on a number of finfish. Black sea bass, summer flounder, scup, striped bass and tautog can only be fished during certain times during the year. Fisheries fishing for these fish are also subject to commercial trip limits, which dictate how many pounds of each fish can be taken.

The R.I. DEM also has prohibited the possession of egg-bearing lobsters and blue crabs.

Sutinen said, "There are also licenses to fish which assign a time and quotas on how much you can fish and what kinds of equipment you can use."

In 2004, there were about 4,500 commercial fishing licenses in the state. The total value of the fishing industry in Rhode Island was estimated to be more than $500 million, according to the R.I. DEM.

Enforcement of fishing regulations varies from place to place. The U.S. Coast Guard patrols the waters and the National Marine Service patrols the docks. The RI DEM is also responsible for local ports, Sutinen said.

Despite the actions of the enforcement agencies, illegal fishing still occurs worldwide and in Rhode Island.

"I did a survey several years ago and found some incidents of illegal fishing in Rhode Island," Sutinen said. "I found an incident of clams in polluted areas of Narragansett Bay [being fished]."

Sutinen said he didn't know to what extent illegal fishing takes place in Rhode Island but he said he was sure it still happens.

"There's no way we're going to eliminate it, it'll always happen," Sutinen said, and compared regulations to end illegal fishing to speed limit laws.

"Some people will still [break the law] but we can do things to keep in under control to some manageable level," Sutinen said.

The traditional way to enforce fishing regulations is to send enforcement officers out to the water to find fishers violating laws, according to Sutinen.

"The limitation with that is it's costly and hard to detect the violators," Sutinen said. "Instead we should rely on ways to develop rules and regulations that fishers can find acceptable and comply with voluntarily without the fear of enforcement."

He added, "We need to craft rules that make sense and seriously address the problem of marine consumption. There is no universal answer."