February 12, 2013 — Congressman John Tierney, six of his colleagues in the Massachusetts congressional delegation, and five more from Maine and New Hampshire have written to the acting commerce secretary, formally urging the government to find a way to continue a full subsidy of at-sea monitoring costs while the industry absorbs drastic cuts in catch limits.
The letter, dated last Thursday, was written a week after the New England Fishery Management Council agreed to recommend reducing Gulf of Maine — or inshore — cod limits by 77 percent and Georges Bank or off-shore cod catches by 61 percent, constrictions that are widely expected by industry and government alike to threaten the viability of groundfishing.
Both inshore and offshore cod at those levels of reduced landing would be considered “choke species,” a status that bar the fleet from targeting the groundfish at all in the fishing year that begins May 1.
Acting Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank last September declared the Northeast groundfishery a recognized “economic disaster” — 11 months after the first request for that designation was filed by Gov. Deval Patrick. But the recent lame-duck Congress declined to appropriate any relief funding to address the disaster, with the House deleting a $150 million Senate-approved appropriation in the waning days before the 112th Congress expired Jan. 3.
Read the full story in the Gloucester Times