A mysterious, anonymously-generated petition is urging New England groundfishermen to sign and help convince Congress that there is broad-based support for catch shares, the Obama administration's fisheries policy that has been stalled by the U.S. House of Representatives.
Copies of the document began circulating on Monday, less than 48 hours after a bipartisan House majority voted 259-159 to shut off funding for new catch share programs on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.
The conversion of the groundfishery into a catch share system, assigning catching rights that can be bought, sold or traded among fishermen or to outside investors and corporations, has come under the NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco in 2009. The regimen is nearing the end of its first annual cycle of operation, and is widely seen as destabilizing port economies, making of winners and losers in the selection of the criteria for dividing the total catch into shares.
By most accounts, there are far more losers — smaller, independent boats and businesses — and catch share opponents than winners and program advocates.
Read the complete story from The Gloucester Times.