GLOCUESTER, Mass. — August 17, 2012 — Along with Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine have also been waiting for more than half a year for a response from the Commerce Department to separate filings for fishery disaster declarations.
A week after Gov. Deval Patrick, on Nov. 15, filed scientific studies showing how catch shares, the currency of the newly created commodity market, have had “a devastating impact on the commonwealth’s groundfishery,” Maine Gov. Paul LePage filed a parallel request for his state, and on Jan. 13, 2012, Gov. John H. Lynch filed a disaster relief request for New Hampshire.
Rhode Island and New York are also reportedly preparing similar pleas for federal relief for their fishing communities.
In March, the Gloucester-based Northeast Seafood Coalition, the region’s largest industry group, urged all New England coastal states and New York and New Jersey to appeal for disaster relief.
Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts, on Thursday called on “the federal government” to declare a regional fisheries disaster.
In doing so, she put herself in a rare accord with her Republican opponent, Sen. Scott Brown.
Read the full story at the Gloucester Times.