EXCERPT: "This legislation is about the survival of an industry that has been central to Massachusetts for centuries – We cannot allow this rule to be implemented." [Spokesperson for Senator Ted Kennedy]
GLOUCESTER, MA (March 10, 2009) – A coalition of U.S. senators and representatives is trying to legislatively block an impending, stepped-up one-year crackdown on commercial fishing in New England by the National Marine Fisheries Service.
The congressional amendment would negate a proposed Interim Rule by NMFS that has been widely — though not universally — analyzed as pushing the industry toward insolvency in the effort to restore the vitality of the 19 mixed stock fishery.
Melissa Wagoner, spokeswoman for U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, said in an exchange with the Times yesterday that "the agency’s proposed Interim Rule would be catastrophic for our fishermen and the economies of our fishing ports."
Read the Gloucester Daily Times story in full