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Frank not ready to give up the ship on fishing relief

NEW BEDFORD — It may still be possible to obtain some federal financial aid for the local fishing industry, U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., told the mayor's fishery advisory council Thursday.

He said he still thinks Commerce Secretary Gary Locke's denial of Gov. Deval Patrick's request for increased catch allocations was "offensive and stupid and wrong."

But in a conversation with Locke Thursday, Frank surmised that Locke was unaware of the total dismissal of economic help in a letter to the governor by Eric Schwaab, head of the National Marine Fisheries Services.

"I asked him if he read Schwaab's letter," Frank told The Standard-Times. Locke said "No."

And Locke then offered to negotiate the issue, he said.

Patrick had requested $21 million in assistance with sector management, which has added a new layer of expensive bureaucracy that Locke and Schwaab did not discuss even as they pointed to increased revenues.

Read the complete story from The Standard Times.

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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