March 18, 2019 — Perhaps the third time will be the charm. We shall see.
State Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr is back with his bill that would permit processing of fresh and frozen lobsters in Massachusetts and cease the mandate to send Massachusetts-landed lobsters out of state for processing into parts.
The Senate passed the bill. But then the Senate passed the measure the previous two times it appeared on the calendar, only to have the House each time put the kibosh on it.
This year, Tarr and supporters of the bill took a different route. They attached the bill to a supplemental budget already passed by the House.
That means the bill, now before the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture, still has a chance to live on if it remains in the supplemental budget following the conference committee.
And it should.
As we’ve previously written, supporters have made a strong case that changing the law would provide expanded and more efficient markets for lobstermen, create jobs and other platforms of growth for the processing industry, help coastal communities, such as Gloucester, diversify their waterfront infrastructure, and provide consumers with more choices.