January 9, 2018 — John Bullard, the outgoing northeast region administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has provided a clue as to what he believes is needed to re-open groundfish harvesting in Sector IX, Carlos Rafael’s former fishing group.
“As far as we know, the sector’s enforcement committee has not yet completed an investigation of the sector’s operations issues or determined the full extent of the sector’s non-compliance,” he says in a column published in South Coast Today, a newspaper serving New Bedford, Massachusetts, the port city Sector IX calls home.
“That’s a show stopper.”
Bullard has heard plenty of criticism from the newly constituted board of Sector IX, the mayor of New Bedford, Massachusetts, out-of-work crew members and many others since he announced his decision in November to shut down all groundfish harvesting for the group nearly five months before the season was due to end on April 30.
Read the full story at Undercurrent News