July 2, 2014 — The state’s first public meeting on the spending plan for Massachusetts’ $14.5 million portion of the federal groundfish disaster funds is scheduled for Gloucester on July 14.
That meeting, the first in a series of four to be held by the state Division of Marine Fisheries, will provide stakeholders the opportunity to comment on the state program to provide 194 eligible Bay State fishermen with $32,463 each in direct aid, as well as provide information on the $8.2 million headed to the state in grants that go to assist crew, fund cooperative research and aid shoreside businesses.
The meeting is scheduled to be held at the DMF offices at 30 Emerson Ave., beginning at 6 p.m.
NOAA and state fishery directors from the five New England coastal states and New York agreed in May to a compromise plan — developed in cooperation with stakeholders and industry advocates — to distribute the region’s almost $33 million share of the $75 million allocated by Congress in January to address the declared disaster in the Northeast multispecies groundfish fishery.
Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times