July 3, 2014 — Without significant Magnuson-Stevens reforms, fishermen will be forced to somehow stay afloat through the NOAA limit cuts, and fishing communities like Gloucester will continue to face the same “economic disaster” they face today.
“How many businesses could survive an 80 percent reduction in the amount of things they can produce and sell?”
That question, raised by Gloucester fishermen Don Vitale at Tuesday’s fisheries “listening session” hosted by Congressman John Tierney at Gloucester’s City Hall – and played out before visiting Congressman Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., a ranking Democrat on the House’s Natural Resources Committee that has reported out a Magnuson-Stevens reauthorization bill — didn’t even need an answer.
The only possible response would be none — or very close to it.
Yet that’s precisely what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, emboldened by the current Magnuson-Stevens Act, expect today’s fishermen and fishing businesses to do. And the raising of the issue by Vitale should continue to ring in the ears of DeFazio, Tierney and — through their relaying Vitale’s concerns to their colleagues — every other federal lawmaker facing a Magnuson reauthorization vote.
For without significant Magnuson-Stevens reforms, fishermen will be forced to somehow stay afloat through those NOAA limit cuts. And fishing communities like Gloucester will continue to face the same “economic disaster” they face today — with the federal government forced to shell out more and more disaster aid packages like the one that remains in the works as we speak.
Read the full opinion piece at the Gloucester Daily Times