February 17, 2015 — Yet, for all the sighs of relief, the announcement that the second phase of this $75 million aid package will soon be en route casts another spotlight on some important timing issues — and not just the absurd length of time it has taken NOAA to pull these phases together.
Remember that, in theory, there’s still phase 3 of this aid to come — one that may include a complex and likely controversial boat or permit buyout or buy-back program. And, most of all, remember that all the aid dates to a $75 million congressional appropriation that gained approval in early 2014.
While that package addressed the economic disaster across the industry declared by the Department of Commerce in the fall of 2012, the Northeast ground fishery has been socked since that time with Gulf of Main cod landing cuts of 78 percent covering the last two fishing years. And NOAA Northeast administrator John Bullard imposed an “emergency” set of area closures last November that have limited fishermen even more — especially affecting Gloucester’s day-boat fishermen, who rely on fishing inshore and whose smaller, independent boats can’t safely reach areas that have been opened.
When will our federal lawmakers begin addressing a desperately needed new aid package to address all of that? And when will those lawmakers take the real necessary steps to get to the root of this problem?
That can only come through forcing NOAA to not only reconsider its regulations, but to re-examine the science and the assessment methods behind them. Let’s start now.
Read the full editorial at the Gloucester Daily Times