Gloucester Mayor Carolyn Kirk tells Saving Seafood that in the progress meeting on the new fishing regulations held Friday at City Hall in Gloucester frustrations levels are at an all time high. She stated that fishermen feel completely ignored in their pleas for relief despite the broad support from elected officials from many many states. The mayor described the consensus view that it is time to call upon the White House to intervene on behalf of fishing communities. Later on Friday, the Mayor wrote to the President.
Gloucester Mayor Carolyn Kirk has written to President Barack Obama noting that she, together with "a broad coalition of elected officials from many states including Governor Deval Patrick, Senators John Kerry and Scott Brown of Massachusetts, fishermen, and industry advocates, have made multiple pleas for relief on the new regulations that are putting fishermen out of business."
The mayor bluntly tells the President "We have had no satisfaction whatsoever from your staff including NOAA Administrator Dr. Jane Lubchenco, and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke."
The mayor continued, "Rather than get into the technical details, I have a simple request. Come to Gloucester. See for yourself the hardworking fishermen who have spent years conserving the fisheries resource only now to be shut out of their livelihood at a time when the fish are rebounding."
The mayor noted that she and her family travelled to Washington for the President's inaugural a year and a half ago, and asks now that he come to Gloucester in the hope that after a visit he "will come to agree that the overzealousness of government is unnecessarily putting small fishing businesses out of business, and leading to job loss and despair in our fishing communities."