The Obama administration yesterday announced it was forging ahead with an experimental, dual track management system for the New England groundfishery that is calculated to cull out a significant number of small boat businesses while pushing hard to meet statutory stock reconstruction deadlines. The system is slated to begin May1.
Estimates of casualties range from half to three-quarters of the groundfishing fleet, which is especially bad news for Gloucester where groundfishing is the dominant form.
Vito Giacalone, the industry innovator and policy director for the Gloucester-based Northeast Seafood Coalition, the region's largest industry group, said he expected business failures in the short term to be "pretty dramatic, perhaps 50 percent" of boats.
The announcement of the go-ahead with Amendment 16 was expected despite calls for a delay by industry representatives in Gloucester and New Bedford who argued that the alterations in business and regulatory model were not fully developed.
Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.