WASHINGTON, DC (February 12, 2009) – The Whaling City Seafood Display Auction and the Boston Seafood Display Auction announce The Project to Save Seafood and Ocean Resources and the website SavingSeafood.org. Headquartered in Washington, DC, the Saving Seafood Project will also operate in New Bedford and Boston.
Read the official Saving Seafood press release in full [PDF]
GLOUCESTER, MA (February 04, 2009) – Six New England senators’ effort to affix a $156.4 million rescue plan for the groundfish industry to the near $900 billion economic stimulus and recovery plan in the U.S. Senate apparently failed some time ago behind an opaque curtain.
In its brief presence on the scene, the recovery plan attained the status of a zombie — that of the living dead.
Even as representatives of a sponsor, Sen. John Kerry, focused on a "legislative solution" this week to the fishery’s crippling woes and a leading industry group continued working feverishly to shore up support for the package it authored, from the office of the lead sponsor, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, came word that the effort had collapsed "weeks ago."
Read the Gloucester Daily Times story in full
WASHINGTON, DC (February 3, 2009) – President Obama extended a political olive branch to the GOP Tuesday, nominating Sen. Judd Gregg, R-New Hampshire, to head the Commerce Department.
"Clearly, Judd and I don’t agree on every issue, most notably who should’ve won the [presidential] election," Obama joked in announcing the nomination, "but we do agree on the urgent need to get American businesses and families back on their feet."
Gregg will be an "able, persuasive ambassador for industry" because he is a skillful negotiator and a "master of reaching across the aisle to get things done," Obama said.
NORTH PROVIDENCE, RI (February 2, 2009) – Among the items before the U.S. Senate this week, as it weighs its own version of the economic stimulus plan that cleared the House last week, is a proposal to add $156.4 million to help transform the Northeast’s commercial groundfishing industry.
The measure – sponsored by Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, the U.S. senators from Rhode Island; their Massachusetts counterparts, John Kerry and Edward M. “Ted” Kennedy; and the senators from Maine, Susan Collins and Olympia Snow – would allocate $100 million to boat buyout programs; $41.5 million to catch-verification staffing and technology; and $10 million to job training for past and future fishermen.
The goal is to downsize the region’s groundfishing fleet by 25 percent to 50 percent from its current total of about 800 boats, many of which sail out of New Bedford or Gloucester, Mass. The sponsors see the move as an alternative method of protecting both the North Atlantic fisheries and the fishermen themselves.
Read the Providence Business News story in full
GLOUCESTER, MA (February 02, 2009) – With the North Atlantic fishery chronically declining and now at what many believe is a make-or-break moment, senators from three New England states have asked Congress for $156.4 million to transform, downsize and modernize the nation's original industry.
The bulk of the appropriation, $100 million, would be used as boat buyout money.
In addition, the proposal asks for $41.5 million for catch verification technology and staff, and $10 million for job training for the exiting and entering generations of fishermen.
Read the Gloucester Daily Times story in full
WASHINGTON, DC (January, 16, 2009) – Legislation authored by Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) to focus research on rising ocean acidity passed the Senate yesterday. Ocean acidification harms marine life and poses serious risks to the fishing industry.
“Ocean acidification is a serious threat to our environment and to our marine life,” said Sen. Lautenberg. “Changes in ocean chemistry, caused by greenhouse gases, will affect our food supply and the health of our oceans. But research on ocean acidification is still in its infancy. My legislation would provide the needed research to analyze and address the environmental and economic impacts of ocean acidification.”
Increased carbon dioxide emissions are causing oceans to become more acidic. Ocean acidity has increased 30 percent in the last 100 years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA also projects that, by the end of this century, current levels of carbon dioxide emissions would result in the lowest levels of ocean pH in 20 million years.
WASHINGTON, DC (January 7, 2009) – Teacher, fisherman, furniture maker, marine scientist–there isn’t much that University of Massachusetts Dartmouth professor Brian Rothschild can’t do and do well.
Luckily for the city of New Bedford, sometime in the 1990s he set his mind on seeking ways to save the local scallop fishery. A little over a decade later, scallops have made the city the biggest fishing port, in terms of dollars worth of seafood caught, in the United States.
Read the tribute in full at Congressman Frank’s official website
WASHINGTON, DC (January 14, 2009) – Congressman Barney Frank today urged the Coast Guard to improve the Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) technology, used to track commercial fishing boats, in order to improve safety within the fishing industry.
In a letter he sent today to Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen, Frank urged the agency to “begin the process of determining whatever improvements are necessary to enable VMS technology to be used reliably for safety, and to take the necessary steps to implement those changes as soon as possible.”
Read the Congressional statement in full
WASHINGTON (January 14, 2009) – In response to proposed regulations issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) that would effectively reduce the average number of days-at-sea for groundfishermen from 48 per year to 20 per year for 2009, U.S. Senator Olympia J. Snowe, Ranking Member of the Senate Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guard released the following statement:
“Regrettably, onerous federal regulations have long plagued the groundfishing industry in New England . Now, this proposal to slash the remaining days-at-sea by more than half would decimate the fishery, particularly here in Maine . It is absolutely absurd to expect any fisherman to afford to operate at sea for only 20 days out of the year.
“As Ranking Member of the Fisheries and Coast Guard Subcommittee, I am appalled and profoundly troubled that the agency would even consider the draconian measures contained in this proposed regulation, much less actually present them as a viable solution to the current crisis in the groundfishing industry. Read Senator Snowe’s statement in full at her official website
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