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Feds Refusal to Hike Catch Limits Sparks Anger in New England

Last week's decision by U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to refuse a request by the governor of Massachusetts to raise catch limits for groundfish in the Northeast has angered New England fishermen and politicians. None more so, perhaps, than leading Congressional Democrat Barney Frank of Massachusetts. In an editorial published this week in the Standard-Times of New Bedford, Frank called the move an "assault" on the fishing industry.

Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican, agrees. "I'm very disappointed in the Secretary's decision," Collins says. She also says she was surprised it.

"I felt that the entire New England delegation made a very strong case for him to invoke his emergency authority to raise the catch limits, and I'm very concerned that his failure to do so may be catastrophic for what remains of our fishing community and fishing industry in New England," Collins says.

Locke said back in October that he was open to ordering increases in the catch, but needed evidence to support it. Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick responded in November, sending a letter and scientific report to Locke that said unnecessarily low catch limits were creating an "economic disaster" for local fishermen.

Read the story and listen to the audio from MPBN.

MELISSA WOOD, NATIONAL FISHERMEN: Meting out the meager

May 22, 2012 - Listening to the New England Council's Groundfish Advisory Panel talk about how that industry is going to pay for monitoring costs is kind of like trying to figure out how to pay your bills when you've just lost your job. Though monitoring is important keeping costs down is critical. As Panel Member Gary Libby pointed out, "If we had 100 percent monitoring we probably wouldn't have an industry."

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