Funds to help ease the transition to new management
The federal office that oversees fishing said yesterday that it would provide $16 million to help New England’s fishing industry transition to a new management system, two days after a round of fishing restrictions were announced.
The money will not go to individual fishermen affected by the new rules, which slice fishing revenue by $17.4 million, or 9 percent, but to a regional effort to develop a new way of fishing.
The new plan gives groups of fishermen a total amount of fish they can catch each year, but lets them figure out how much – and when – each can catch their allotted amount. There are already two such programs in New England, and 17 more proposed.