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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 35 Number 8
April 2008
NMFS tells MA how to spend groundfish aid
BOSTON, MA – The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has attached some serious strings to the $13.4 million appropriation secured by the state’s congressional delegation to provide economic relief to Massachusetts groundfish fishermen.
The money, which was contained in the Omnibus Appropriations Bill signed by President Bush in December, did not go straight to the state. Instead, it went to NMFS, which is handling it as grant money that the commonwealth of Massachusetts must apply for.
And if the state wants its application approved quickly, it will have to meet certain guidelines, according to John Oliver of NMFS.
“While we understand the need for some direct payments to fishermen, we do not believe they will benefit the fishermen or the state in the long run,” he said in a Feb. 8 letter.
Any “economic subsidies” should be directed toward “health insurance, safety issues, and other social benefits” such as counseling “for the most affected fishermen and their families,” Oliver added.
Instead of focusing on direct payments to ease the extreme financial strains many groundfish fishermen are experiencing, NMFS said its priority was for the state to use the money to buy out individual fishing operations and reduce the size of the fleet.
In particular, Oliver said the money could be used to buy out gillnetters.
“Our Northeast Regional Office and Northeast Fisheries Science Center have indicated that the gillnet fishery could be a prime area of emphasis to achieve the kind of capacity reduction that would achieve significant benefit,” Oliver wrote.
More specifically, he said the state should come up with a plan that directs: no more than 50% of the money towards subsidies; 40%-60% for “capacity reduction;” and “10%-15% for future management measures and your needs for administering the program.”
Said Oliver, “If the state proposal follows this allocation, we will be able to process it quickly and ensure funding is available to start making progress towards the short-term needs of fishermen.”
Protests
This kind of response was not what people involved in securing the appropriation had in mind.
In a March 21 letter to the head of NMFS’s parent agency, US Rep. Barney Frank said, “The money was included in the appropriations bill to address economic problems within the Massachusetts fishing industry as a result of the restrictive groundfish management measures that are now in place. It is clear that requiring the state to expend the funds for other purposes that do not contribute directly to this goal falls outside the purpose of the appropriations language.”
Jackie Odell, executive director of the Northeast Seafood Coalition, stressing that she was speaking only on behalf of the coalition’s Massachusetts members, said that the money was intended specifically to help those who have suffered under the restrictions imposed by Framework 42 to the federal groundfish plan.
“Long-time fishing businesses have taken on tremendous debt for permit purchasing and leasing to account for the days-at-sea reductions, differential counting, and low trip limits associated with Framework 42,” she said. “The monies should be directed to those who have been directly impacted – commercial fishermen.”
As Commercial Fisheries News was going to press, state officials at the highest level were finalizing a grant proposal plan in order to submit it by the April 15 deadline set by NMFS. State officials said they were committed to involving the public as much as possible in the process.
Representatives of the state Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, the Department of Fish and Game, and the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) met with an industry subcommittee in late March to flesh out the proposal to take to public hearings.
Among those invited to be a part of the subcommittee were Angela Sanfilippo, Jackie Odell, Ed Barrett, Frank Mirarchi, Tory Bramante, Mike Walsh, Donna Albino, Troy Wall, Eric Brazer, Luis Ribas, Kevin Twombly, Tom DePersia, Chuck DiStefano, Armand Aparo, Bob Lane, and Deb Shrader. Vito Calomo, executive director of the Massachusetts Fisheries Recovery Commission and chairman of the Massachusetts Marine Fisheries Commission, chaired the meeting.
DMF had scheduled three public meetings for April 1-3 to gather comment on the state’s proposal for using the groundfish assistance funds.
DMF has established a page on its web site at <www.mass.gov/dfwele/dmf> to keep the public informed about this process. Click on “Groundfish Assistance Program” under “Spotlight” in the upper right-hand corner of the DMF homepage. Or call DMF at (617) 626-1520.
Lorelei Stevens
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