Senators John F. Kerry and Scott Brown, and Congressmen Barney Frank, William R. Keating and John F. Tierney have written a letter to NMFS Assistant Administrator Eric Schwaab requesting that he prevent fishing trips from occurring in the Nantucket Lightship Closed Area in the 2011 fishing year.
They write, "As I am sure you are aware, the highly successful scallop area rotation program will be adversely affected if the Nantucket Lightship closed area trips take place this fishing year. The success of the rotational system depends on the timely opening and closing of access areas, and if vessels decide to fish in the Nantucket Lightship area because of delayed implementation of Framework 22, future yields could be reduced and the success of the program jeopardized."