May 29, 2014 — The plan to deliver the long-awaited federal fishery disaster money to Gloucester fishermen and others in the Northeast multispecies groundfishery is largely in place, but recipients probably won’t see any of it until early fall.
The distribution plan, agreed to by the fishery directors from six states and announced Wednesday by NOAA, calls for eligible permit holders in the New England groundfish industry to receive about $11 million in direct assistance, or $32,463 each.
That $11 million is about a third of the $32.8 million in fishery disaster funds portioned to the five coastal New England states and New York.
The direct assistance to the 336 eligible permit holders — those in the Northeast multispecies fishery that landed at least 5,000 pounds of groundfish in any one year from 2010 to 2013 — is one of the three major elements in the dispersal plan.