January 16, 2014 — The news that a congressional spending bill bears $75 million in fisheries disaster aid provides welcome tidings for the fishing industry.
And the fact that the House bill now in play on Capitol Hill rightfully keeps NOAA’s Northeast regional administration in Gloucester — albeit under the new, more fitting name of the Greater Atlantic Fisheries Office — represents an important relief for Cape Ann’s economy as well.
Now, however, the important thing is for lawmakers to ensure that this aid, desperately needed by so many fishermen and families to stabilize the boats, businesses and their way of life, gets into their hands as soon as possible heading into a new fishing year starting May 1.
That means that the Department of Commerce — governmental parent of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the agency entrusted with this planned allocation — should immediately move toward distributing the money through the states, to be parceled out perhaps based on the number of commercial permits and fishermen working the seas.
Yes, the aid is facing approval late in the game — an absurd 16 months after the Department of Commerce declared the Northeast groundfishery a full-fledged “economic disaster,” and nine months after NOAA’s cuts of up to 78 percent in landing limits made things even worse than that.