October 5, 2015 — Last week brought a mix of news for the region’s fishermen, some of it straight-out bad, some offering a glimmer of hope for the future of one of New England’s oldest industries.
We’ll start with the bad news — the state’s rejection of the so-called “Gloucester Plan” for distributing the last batch of U.S. fishery disaster aid to Massachusetts fishermen with federal permits.
The local plan would have shared the remaining $6 million and $7 million of federal among fishermen with federal permits who landed at least 20,000 pounds of groundfish in any season between 2012 and 2014. That plan would have ensured the money went to the boats most affective by the closing of large swaths of the North Atlantic to fishing.
Instead, the stead opted for a plan with much lower standards.