January 9, 2013 — In a bid to bolster the beleaguered fishing industry in Massachusetts, lawmakers are proposing a state effort to encourage consumers to think locally when they shop for cod, haddock, lobster, and scallops.
State Senate minority leader Bruce E. Tarr, a Gloucester Republican, is chief sponsor of a new bill calling for the creation of a marketing program aimed at increasing demand for seafood brought ashore in Massachusetts.
The legislation comes as the New England fishing industry, already battered by years of steep catch limits, is struggling to absorb its deepest restrictions to date. Last May, regulators cut by 77 percent the amount of cod that can be caught in the Gulf of Maine, while also slashing allowable catch levels for other ground fish such as haddock and flounder.
Eight area lawmakers are among 23 cosponsors of the bill, which is based on recommendations from a 2013 report issued by a special commission that explored the idea of a state seafood marketing program.
“The federal catch restrictions have reduced what we can land so dramatically that we have to make more of what we do land in order for the industry to remain viable,” said Tarr, who served on the special commission.
‘It’s not just haddock, cod, flounder, and lobsters.’
“We need folks to know that fish caught in New England and particularly in Massachusetts is caught sustainably,” he said, of the efforts local fishermen and processors take to protect juvenile fish and spawning grounds. “Consumers need to know that particularly when upwards of 90 percent of the fish being consumed in this country is being brought from someplace else.”
He said there is also a need to better communicate “the benefit of eating locally caught and processed fish, its freshness, and its . . . nutritional benefits that are almost without peer.”
Read the full story at The Boston Globe