Commercial saltwater fishermen in New England can soon choose to be regulated by how much fish they catch, not by how many days they spend at sea. And as part of its new program, the New England Fisheries Management Council has approved a plan to allocate shares of the annual groundfish (haddock, flounder, etc.) catch by sectors of fishermen instead of by individual quota. A sector would be closed if it exceeded its limit. This seems a much easier and more orderly way to prevent overfishing than going after fishermen (or, rather, fishing boats) one by one.

Of course, commercial (and recreational) saltwater fishermen don’t really want any quotas. They resent controls that treat them as freshwater fishermen, weighed down with permits, have long been treated. But such has been the overfishing that some species in the Atlantic have been as fished out as trout in some lakes. Some are close to extinction.

Let’s hope that the new fishing regulations let key species revive quickly via a simpler, more transparent regulatory regime.