June 3, 2013 — More than 150 members or allies of the fishing industry governed by the Northeast Regional Office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have petitioned the Senate Appropriations Committee to stop all funding for the Gloucester headquarters and to reallocate “any salvaged” money for relief of the “disaster” that has befallen the industry as officially recognized more than eight months ago.
Since the September 2012 disaster declaration, issued by then acting Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank, repeated pleas for help made by numerous political leaders — including Gov. Deval Patrick and Congressman John Tierney — to the White House have gone for naught.
Among the signers of the petition were a number of Cape Ann fishermen including Hilary Dombrowski, Ignazio Sanfilippo, Thomas Testaverde, Stebastian Brancaleone, William Skrobacz, Mark Byard, Accursio Sanfilipo, Richard Burgess, Edward Smith and Darren Twombly.
Support for the petition, however, is spread across the nation, and includes industry representatives from Alaska, North Carolina, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Maryland, Oregon, Louisiana and Pennsylvania.
Petitioners of prominence include Richie Canastra, co-owner of BASE New England, the region’s largest fish auction and Carlos Raphael, who owns the largest fleet of groundfishing and scalloping boats in the region. Both are from the greater New Bedford area.
Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times