Expressing concern that the commodification of New England's groundfishery has accelerated economic inequality, Sen. John Kerry has urged the U.S. Commerce Department to acknowledge the policy has been a "disaster" — as alleged by elected federal and state officials. The catch share trading figures — scrubbed from the NOAA Fisheries website — documented that a sector of the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen's Association, given a preferable allocation from the mainstream commercial fleets in Gloucester, New Bedford, and elsewhere, had leased out nearly 2 million pounds of allocation.
The alleged profiteering by the Cape Cod fishermen's association is at the core of a federal lawsuit by commercial fishing interests and the cities of Gloucester and New Bedford, which is scheduled for a hearing next week in the Boston courtroom of a U.S. District Court judge.
Kerry also reiterated in his letter to Locke his request and that of Gov. Deval Patrick and Reps. John Tierney and Barney Frank for the secretary to use his emergency powers to raise catch limits, cited by Giacalone and many others as the cause of the fisheries "collapse."
Finally, Kerry urged Locke to remove restrictions on the appeal of fishermen from vindictive law enforcement actions which scandalized NOAA over the past two years following a decade of complaints and a series of reports from the Commerce Department inspector general.
Read the complete story from The Gloucester Times.