U.S. Sen. John Kerry says he will use "multiple pressure points," including mayors, the governor, the congressional delegation and the Obama administration, in an effort to halt the groundfishery management system that was created by the federal government and upheld — wrongfully, Kerry said — by a federal judge last week.
But the influential Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee declined to commit to taking any specific steps leading to a congressional nullification to the ruling, which Kerry last week said needed to be overturned.
Kerry was asked by the Gloucester Times Tuesday what specific steps he would take to defend the industry from Amendment 16, which reorganized the groundfishery into a quasi-commodities market that has steered more catch quota to large businesses and investors, but is crippling smaller, independent fishing boats, and hurting the economics of ports like Gloucester.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit — which include the cities of Gloucester and New Bedford — caucused Friday in a teleconference and decided to file a notice of appeal while also seeking congressional support for the Commerce Department inspector general to undertake an investigation into the process that produced Amendment 16, the regulatory framework for the catch share system.
Read the complete story from The Gloucester Times.