NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco on Tuesday did not dispute Cape Ann Fresh Catch's opinion that her testimony to the Senate Commerce Committee falsely credited the catch share sector regimen for the boat-to-consumer program of the Gloucester Fisherman's Wives Association and its partners.
Cape Ann Fresh Catch sent the fishing community an open letter via the Times which noted with disapproval Lubchenco's Oct. 3 testimony citing the Fresh Catch program, begun in 2009, as an example of how New England fishermen are realizing new entrepreneurial opportunities under catch share and sector management.
Noting that the Fresh Catch program was organized to counter the consolidation trend that the catch share/sector system was expected to produce and is now producing, Heather Fraelick, the program's marketing and communications director public, characterized Lubchenco's testimony as "disingenuous, dishonest and disrespectful of our community's fishing fleet."
Lubchenco was said to be traveling Monday and so was unable to read or respond to the letter by Fraelick, written on behalf of the Fresh Catch program of the Gloucester Fisherman's Wives Association, the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance, MIT Sea Grant and Turner Seafood.
Read the complete article by Richard Gaines in The Gloucester Times