April 29, 2013 — The regional Northeast Seafood Coalition, is holding a major public rally calling for more Federal help for the region's groundfishing industry which is under severe pressure at the moment. Because of restrictions, catches of cod, the staple species of the area, have fallen by over 70 per cent.
The Northeast Seafood Coalition has issued an open invitation for fishermen and their supporters to attend the rally which starts from the Boston Fish Pier. It says the rally will provide an opportunity for the groundfish industry to call upon the federal government for short and long-term assistance and mitigation that are critical to keeping businesses viable.
With the start of the new fishing season on Wednesday this week, the organisers are keen to get their message across to the government and to the public. They say the industry has been in decline since the Obama administration adopted a policy of making the industry move to a catch share management system. This provokes fishermen into trading their share of the quota which has benefited larger vessels to the detriment of the smaller independently owned trawlers.