WASHINGTON — February 15, 2013 — Below is Rep. Bill Keating’s statement in response to NOAA Fisheries Northeast Regional Administrator John Bullard’s announcement today that New England’s groundfish fishermen will be able to carryover 10 percent of current quota to the 2013 fishing year with the exception of Gulf of Maine cod.
“In the face of severe catch reductions, approving the quota carryover is a small but positive step toward providing flexibility to our fishermen. While this is some progress, there are other opportunities we should be exploring – such as complete coverage of at-sea monitoring costs – to continue mitigating the hardships our fishermen are facing. I encourage NOAA to do just that.”