The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's budget seeks $1 million to fight lawsuits filed to block or limit catch share regimens. Multiple lawsuits are already pending in U.S. District Courts, including one filed by the cities of Gloucester and New Bedford in Boston.
Meanwhile, seven senators and representatives joined U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., Wednesday in signing a letter telling Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to abandon the catch share campaign which "does not have broad based support from the fishing industry" because of harm it has already done.
One of the signers of the Hagen letter, Congressman Walter Jones, R-N.C., also announced the filing of a federal budget amendment that would bar further spending on any new catch shares programs.
Jones' amendment would "prohibit NOAA from spending any money on the development and approval of new catch share programs in fisheries under the jurisdiction of the Gulf of Mexico, South Atlantic, Mid-Atlantic and New England Fishery Management."
Despite widespread industry opposition, the $907.8 million budget proposal for the National Marine Fisheries Service proposes shifting money from fisheries research and management and cooperative research programs to increase catch share spending by $36.6 million.
The consumer group Food and Water Watch, which has been a fierce critic of catch shares, praised the effort to fight the catch share management schemes.
"A wildly unpopular management tool, catch shares re-distribute access to fish, usually from smaller scale fishermen to larger, more industrialized operations," said Wenonah Hauter, the organization's executive director. "Catch shares have been proven to decrease job opportunities and wages for workers, skew fisheries toward industrial production, and devastate the socio-economic well-being of coastal and fishing communities.
"We congratulate these legislators for supporting U.S. fishermen in their desperate battle to hold on to their jobs and stop the privatization of fisheries," Hauter said in the prepared statement.
Food and Water Watch has produced search showing that catch share programs have eliminated about two thirds of the jobs in fisheries subjected to the system which tends to consolidate equity into the largest hands at the expense of small businesses.
The Recreational Fishing Alliance, which organized last year's national protest against federal fisheries policies, has announced a faxing campaign to Congress to put the brakes on catch share conversions.
Read the complete story from The Gloucester Times.