NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — August 6, 2012 — The Division of Marine Fisheries has launched a $1 million revolving loan fund for commercial fisheries to help owner-operated businesses lease groundfish quotas.
The state's groundfishermen have been suffering since last year, when their quota system changed from regulating days fishing boats spend at sea to allocating shares, or sectors, of stocks that they can fish only in specific areas.
Since the new system has been in place, a market has developed of owner-operated fishing businesses selling and leasing their quotas to larger companies in order to stay afloat.
Director of the Division of Marine Fisheries Paul Diodati said the state's low-interest loan program is meant to support owner-operated businesses by lending them funds to buy more shares.
"The fishermen we are trying to cater to are fishermen who have already taken out loans to keep their boats safe or to get additional sectors that they need to keep their businesses above water," he said.
The fund is the result of a partnership between the state and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Diodati said.
Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard Times.