Go catch them.
That’s the sentiment among New Jersey’s commercial fishermen now that the international body that regulates swordfish has preserved the U.S. quota for the next two years at a potentially lucrative 3,907 metric tons per year.
Swordfish is a major commercial fishery at Viking Village, a fishing cooperative on the northern end of Long Beach Island. It’s also a rare growth fishery with U.S. catches up 40 percent since 2006.
There is room for more growth with landings at 2,845 metric tons in 2010 and the quota at 3,907 metric tons.
To invest in boats, gear, permits and other resources to catch swordfish, fishermen need to know there is a future in it. What concerned the industry as the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, or ICCAT, met earlier this month in Istanbul, Turkey, is that countries overfishing their quota wanted to grab America’s unused allocation. It didn’t happen.
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