WASHINGTON — September 25, 2012 — Sen. John Kerry is calling on the National Marine Fisheries Service to organize a meeting with NOAA scientists and Northeast experts and fishermen to discuss groundfish stock assessments.
"I can't stress enough how important it is that fishermen who fish our waters every day are at the table for the discussions that shape rules that shape their economic fortunes," Kerry, D-Mass., said Monday after sending a letter to Samuel D. Rauch, acting assistant administrator for fisheries. "Northeast fishermen have a vested interest in making the system work. The jobs of more than 77,000 folks in Massachusetts depend on the fishing industry and my job is to make the rules of the road work for them from start to finish."
In a press release accompanying the letter, Kerry said that "by engaging local scientists, members of the New England Fisheries Management Council and our fishermen to discuss the complexities of accurately assessing stocks, regulators will gain a more complete picture of the realities of the fishing industry in Georges Bank and the Gulf of Maine."
In the letter, Kerry went on to say that "it is critical that NOAA provide fishermen and others the opportunity to engage in the process, provide feedback, and share ideas about existing methods" used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other federal agencies "and how they can be improved."
Read the full article at South Coast Today