NORTH PROVIDENCE, RI (February 2, 2009) – Among the items before the U.S. Senate this week, as it weighs its own version of the economic stimulus plan that cleared the House last week, is a proposal to add $156.4 million to help transform the Northeast’s commercial groundfishing industry.
The measure – sponsored by Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, the U.S. senators from Rhode Island; their Massachusetts counterparts, John Kerry and Edward M. “Ted” Kennedy; and the senators from Maine, Susan Collins and Olympia Snow – would allocate $100 million to boat buyout programs; $41.5 million to catch-verification staffing and technology; and $10 million to job training for past and future fishermen.
The goal is to downsize the region’s groundfishing fleet by 25 percent to 50 percent from its current total of about 800 boats, many of which sail out of New Bedford or Gloucester, Mass. The sponsors see the move as an alternative method of protecting both the North Atlantic fisheries and the fishermen themselves.
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