A draft letter to congressional leaders from the office of Sen. John Kerry, circulating within the New England delegation in connection with a proposed and controversial fisheries aid package, blames the decline of the groundfishery on weakened fish stocks — and nothing else.
The draft letter — said to be subject to additional changes before a finished draft is sent — ignores the impact on the region’s fishing industry of the 2010 introduction of the catch share management system and its commodities trading, a controversial system that was cited by Gov. Deval Patrick in his November 2011 disaster declaration request as hurling the industry toward hyper consolidation and accelerated job loss.
The letter also makes no mention of congressional alterations to the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the governing statute for the nation’s fisheries. These changes merged in 2010 to radically reduce catch limits by virtually universal agreement.
Read the complete story from The Gloucester Times.