Eighteen members of Congress and the Senate wrote to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke today expressing their "extreme disappointment with the New England Fishery Management Council's decision to reduce fishing days at sea for the Atlantic sea scallop fishery during the 2010 fishing year.
The lawmakers asked the Commerce Secretary to take immediate action instructing the New England Fishery Management Council to revisit the original proposals in January. They cited a letter from the director of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries to the National Marine Fisheries Service, in which Director Paul Diodati noted that science and planning committees' information regarding probability of overfishing was never brought by the Scallop Committee to the Council. "In fact," Director Diodati wrote "the Committee had nothing to offer on this critical issue. I believe this omission played a key role in the Council adopting an F of ).20 with all its attendant consequences."
The eighteen signers wrote "The absence of any presentation to the full Council by the Scallop Committee of the scientific recommendations of the SSC and PDT is a significant omission and warrants serious review…given the expectant economic losses that would result from such an unnecessarily conservative proposal." They noted that "fishery managers are supposed to take into account the scientific recommendations…"
The letter was signed by:
Senator John Kerry
Senator Charles Schumer
Senator Paul Kirk
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand
Senator Jeanne Shaheen
Congressman Barney Frank
Congressman Walter Jones
Congressman John Tierney
Congressman John Adler
Congressman Timothy Bishop
Congressman Michael Capuano
Congressman Joe Courtney
Congressman James McGovern
Congressman Frank LoBiondo
Congressman Anthony Weiner
Congressman Robert Wittman