By Richard Gaines
The caucus of Atlantic coast federal lawmakers organized to consider ways to loosen regulatory restrictions on commercial fishermen which had been scheduled for today has been put off until the new year by the sponsor, Massachusetts Congressman Rep. Barney Frank.
Harry Gural, Frank's press secretary, said that many members are expected to be away from Washington today.
"It now looks like the House may not be in session on Thursday," Gural said yesterday. "If so, some members will have to be in their districts."
Gural said Frank would reschedule the caucus for January.
A resident of Newton, Frank represents New Bedford, which is the nation's No. 1 fishing port in dollar value thanks in large part to the scallop fishery.
It was reductions in the time the fleet is to be allowed to fish for scallops next year, made by the New England Fishery Management Council in November, that Frank cited in announcing the decision to organize a caucus of fishing port representatives to find a way to give the industry more latitude.
Frank has said the effort was warranted because of the harm done to fishing communities along the Atlantic coast by regulators who misinterpret the legal principle imbedded in the Magnuson-Stevens Act to balance ecological with economic and sociological interests.
Frank is one of about two dozen congressmen and senators who have signed on to the Flexibility in Rebuilding American Fisheries Act, filed in the U.S. House by Congressman Frank Pallone of New Jersey. The Senate version was filed by Charles Schumer of New York.
Their effort has attracted endorsements by more than 100 recreational and commercial fishing organizations, and opposition from a phalanx of environmental groups and scientists, led by the Pew Environment Group.
Earlier this year, Pew organized an Internet petition against any modification of Magnuson, and filed with Congress letters from 67 smaller environmental groups and 116 scientists in support of rebuilding the deadlines Magnuson-Stevens Act requires.
Richard Gaines can be reached at 978-283-7000, x3464, or via e-mail at rgaines@gloucestertimes.com
