January 14, 2014 — There is $75 million in fisheries disaster relief in the omnibus appropriations bill poised to clear Congress this week, according to U.S. Rep. William Keating, D-Mass.
It is the first disaster relief money since the acting commerce secretary declared the Northeast fishery an economic disaster in September of 2012.
Keating said that the money will not go directly to fisheries managers but to the Commerce Department, which must decide how to allocate it to the states.
The money will go not only to the Northeast groundsifhery but to New Jersey for Hurricane Sandy relief, and the Gulf of Mexico for oysters.
Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times