NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — January 26, 2013 — Five Massachusetts congressmen and senators are challenging National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Regional Administrator John Bullard's decision Thursday to deny further temporary steps to avoid drastic cuts in groundfishing quotas for the coming year.
The five wrote Bullard on Friday to rebut his insistence that the Magnuson-Stevens Act does not permit more than a year of interim relief. They claim that it does, and that the economic disaster declaration in the Northeast fishery by the Commerce secretary last September makes it urgent to take action.
The five are Democratic Sens. John Kerry and Elizabeth Warren and Democratic Reps. John Tierney, Edward Markey and William Keating.
"When we were considering this, I said I expect we will get letters from every member of Congress, from New England governors, from state representatives and state senators and I'll collect them all," Bullard said. "It doesn't surprise me that elected officials disagree with our interpretation but it doesn't change the law.
"I don't foresee that we're going to change our decision and, even if we did, it doesn't change the biology," Bullard told The Standard-Times Friday.
"Interim measures don't create any fish. They don't change the situation that we're looking at, a depleted fish stock and the measures we're going to have to take to rebuild those stocks," Bullard said.
The letter challenged Bullard to do some homework on economic relief for fishermen and fishing communities.
The legislators asked that Bullard, a former New Bedford mayor, "immediately provide a plan detailing actions you will take to mitigate the adverse economic impacts of these harvest reductions.
Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard Times