January 2, 2014 — The State House bill aimed at better marketing the local seafood industry — filed by state Senate Minority leader Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester, and already backed on the House side by Gloucester Democrat Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante — would create an entirely new function for the state’s Division of Marine Fisheries.
And expanding government’s hand into private industry services like marketing and other operations is a step that can understandably often send chills up and down the spines of business owners and consumers alike.
But this is indeed a measure that can provide credible and needed help to a fishing industry still caught in the grips of a federal regulatory stranglehold that has already spurred a recognized “economic disaster” and essentially collapsed the once-proud Gloucester fleet, whose fishermen and business owners are selling their boats and asking other steps in the face of bankruptcy and foreclosures.
Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times