A state university report in response to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke's call for the New England fishing industry and fishing communities to make their case for "emergency" boosts in groundfish stock limits has found scientific data to support increases in fishermen's annual allowable catch.
The report marks the first definitive step in the state's and communities' effort to make the case for higher catch limits that would free up the tight federal regulatory clamps that have kept many Gloucester and New England fishing boats on shore for much of the summer out of fear they would quickly use up their full allocations for the new fishing year, which began May 1.
As reported in the Times, statistics from the first quarter of the new fishing year showed that the fleet has landed only 8.6 percent of the 95,257.6 metric tons of mixed groundfish that was allocated for the year.
Read the complete story from the Gloucester Daily Times.