February 6, 2014 (Saving Seafood) — In a February 4 letter to Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick expressed his support for recently approved federal disaster relief for New England fishermen, and presented several proposals for how the relief funds should be allotted. According to the Governor, the disaster funds “should be used to not only begin to remedy the economic harm caused by the fisheries disaster, but also to better position our fishery to weather this ongoing resource disaster.”
The federal relief funds are in response to the economic disaster declaration issued in 2012 by the Commerce Department for the New England groundfish fishery. The current economic crisis in the fishery was precipitated by drastically reduced catch levels on key New England groundfish species like cod. According to the Governor, these catch reductions resulted in $33.5 million in lost revenue in Massachusetts alone. When combined with indirect losses, the fishery and fishery-related businesses have lost over $115 million region-wide, with approximately 90 percent of the losses, $103 million, hitting Massachusetts alone.
The Governor concluded by offering the following 6 suggestions for how to allocate the relief money:
– “establish direct subsidy programs to fishermen and fishing businesses to provide temporary relief and deal with immediate changes in fishery management”
– “support crew and family service programs”
– “support loan assistance programs including a long-term revolving loan fund”
– “fund shore-side infrastructure support”
– “develop and implement industry and community plans to rationalize aspects of the groundfish industry and ensure future sustainability of the industry and fishing communities”
Read the full letter from Governor Deval Patrick here