Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: House claws at lobster processing restrictions

April 24, 2019 — Expanding opportunities for the sale and processing of frozen lobster parts would provide a “great economic shot in the arm” for the vital fishing industry in Massachusetts, Cape Cod Rep. Sarah Peake said Tuesday.

House lawmakers agreed to a policy rider Tuesday as part of their deliberation on a $42.7 billion state budget that would allow authorized persons to process and sell frozen lobster parts in Massachusetts, building on a 2013 law that allowed the sale and processing of shell-on lobster tails that meet certain size requirements.

Rep. William Straus, a Mattapoisett Democrat who offered the amendment, said the breaking apart of lobsters for public sale has been “highly regulated” and the reforms already made have increased the availability of “the kinds of lobster products the public is looking for.”

Read the full story from State House News Service at The New Bedford Standard-Times

Local lawmakers fear Cape fishermen will lose out on disaster funds

September 2, 2015 — Many Cape Cod fishermen, operating under shrunken quotas for cod, have shifted their focus to catching other fish species such as dogfish, skate and monkfish.

But that business decision, some lawmakers worry, could be jeopardizing the fishermen’s ability to qualify for the last pot of federal disaster relief funding being dispersed by the Baker administration to help offset the hit to their livelihoods from declining fish populations.

The Division of Marine Fisheries, after issuing draft criteria for the dispersal of roughly $6.5 million in remaining federal fishery disaster aid, held public hearings this summer soliciting feedback on their proposal. Lawmakers from Cape Cod and the Islands are now urging the administration to reconsider the criteria that they say will exclude over 100 fishing boats that could soon be hit with the added cost of paying for at-sea monitors to police their catches.

“We on the Cape represent a group of fisherman who belong to a groundfish sector down here that the draft proposal as written, I’m not sure any of them would qualify for relief,” said Rep. Sarah Peake, a Provincetown Democrat.

Read the full story at Cape Cod Today