Gov. Deval Patrick has joined the push to have cuts in this year's scallop fishing limits — projected in a new scientific study to cost boats 25 percent of revenues — be up for reconsideration by the federal fishery policy-making council at its upcoming meeting.
Patrick called but did not immediately reach John Pappalardo, chairman of the New England Fisheries Management Council, last Friday after a meeting in New Bedford, the scallop capital of the nation, with industry leaders and U.S. Rep. Barney Frank.
However, the two men did speak later in the weekend. From the conversation, a private meeting was set for late Sunday in the governor's Statehouse office, according to governor's spokeswoman Kimberly Haberlin.
Efforts by the Times to reach Pappalardo, who is employed by the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen's Association, were unsuccessful.
After his private Friday meeting with the governor, Congressman Barney Frank told the Times he believed Pappalardo should resign or be fired for refusing the governor's request to have the January meeting of the council rethink its decision to scale back scalloping.
"I'm appalled that Pappalardo didn't put (scallops) on the agenda," Frank told the Times. "I told the governor it was outrageous. The governor was unpleasantly surprised.
"If he doesn't (agree to reconsideration), he (Pappalardo) should resign," Frank added.
[n.b. Congressman Frank expressed the same sentiment to Saving Seafood on Friday.]
The scientific study predicting losses in boat revenues from the action was done by Daniel Georgianna, a professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth's School of Marine Science and Technology.
Research by the same school a decade ago upended government findings that the scallop stock was weakened and required strict catch controls.
Georgianna noted in his study that catches were controlled in the special zones noted for the concentration of scallops but in the rest of the waters along the East Coast was were catches were higher than expected. Georgianna said that result suggested that the stock was even healthier than expected.
"As closed area trips have fixed trip limits," he wrote, "the overages of landings were due to much higher than predicted landings per day in the open areas." So, he concluded, "the excess of actual over-predicted landings may indicate reasons for increasing catch limits."
In an October letter to Lubchenco, Frank wondered why certain waters had been kept closed to scallop boats even after scientific evidence that scallops there were dying of old age.
Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.