August 5, 2015 — The Gloucester Fisheries Commission on Tuesday night recommended a spending plan for the final phase of the federal disaster aid that would preclude using any of the nearly $7 million to pay for at-sea monitoring.
The Gloucester recommendation, which will be contained as public comment in a letter to the state Division of Marine Fisheries, closely mirrors the recommendation of the Gloucester-based Northeast Seafood Coalition by urging the state to use the money as direct financial assistance to fishermen who landed a minimum of 20,000 pounds of groundfish in any of the fishing years 2012, 2013, and 2014.
Commission members Joe Orlando and Al Cottone said using those three fishing years in the eligibility criteria would help expand the pool of potential beneficiaries in the small-boat groundfish fleet.
“Anyone who fished in 2012 caught at least 20,000 pounds of fish,” Orlando said, while Cottone pointed out it 2012 was the last full season of fishing before the deep cuts in groundfish catch allotments.
Read the full story from the Gloucester Daily Times