With socio-economic studies suggesting that control of New England's fishery is becoming concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, the federal government has announced plans to look into and perhaps set limits on groundfish quota accumulations that would protect the fleet's diversity among large and smaller-scale businesses.
The New England Fishery Management Council, the regional policy-making arm of NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service, announced a series of 10 "scoping" hearings to be held across the region in January as the first step of the plan.
The Gloucester hearing is scheduled for Jan. 30, at the state Division of Marine Fisheries' Annisquam River Station, from 6 to 8 p.m.
The hearings are being designed "to gather information and ask for suggestions about the range of issues that should be addressed," possibly through modifications to Amendment 16. That's the regulatory framework for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's catch share program, which has brought a radical reorganization of the groundfishery since it was put in place in May 2010.
Any initiative to cap the amount of quota a business or cooperative can control is highly controversial; many fishermen and government officials argue that the market should be allowed to work its wisdom in reshaping the groundfishing industry, now that it has become subject to market forces.
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