Citing the need for immediate and direct economic assistance for Massachusetts fishermen, Sens. John Kerry and Scott Brown on Thursday sent an urgent letter to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary F. Locke asking him to act at once. The letter also bore the signatures of U.S. Reps. Barney Frank, William Delahunt and John Tierney and follows a similar appeal issued last week by Gov. Deval Patrick on behalf of the groundfish industry.
Thursday's letter from the congressional delegation also urged Locke "to issue emergency regulations revising catch limits to higher levels that remain consistent with conservation requirements."
The secretary recently expressed a willingness to consider allowing commercial fishermen to take more fish if it could be shown that existing regulations are causing economic harm to fishing communities in Massachusetts.
That case was made to the secretary in a report, entitled Economic and Scientific Conditions in the Massachusetts Multispecies Groundfishery, submitted along with the governor's letter on Nov. 5. The report argued in favor of increasing catch limits by 30 percent for most groundfish species and more for some others. The scientific analysis was overseen by Paul Diodati, director of the Massachusetts Department of Marine Fisheries, and Dr. Brian Rothschild of UMass Dartmouth's School of Marine Science and Technology.
Read the complete story from The South Coast Today.