Mayor Carolyn Kirk and Gloucester's two state lawmakers will be hosting an open meeting for local fishermen on how the implementation of the new fishing regulations is going.
Kirk, state Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante and state Sen. Bruce Tarr have set up the meeting for Friday beginning at 8:30 a.m. in City Hall's Kyrouz Auditorium. The gathering comes six days after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's new catch-share management system and the National Marine Fisheries Service's new allocation limits went into effect last Saturday.
"Every day matters, because every day the new system is in place is a day closer Gloucester fishermen are to going out of business," Kirk said in announcing the meeting. "We want to hear directly from fishermen on the impact of the new regulations now that they are seven days into it."
Tarr also noted that "the clock is ticking as we begin a management program with the potential to end the groundfishery as we know it."
"We can't afford to wait to determine its impacts," he said, "and this meeting will give us an important opportunity to develop a strategy on going forward to protect fishing families and our port."
Ferrante said that she and her colleagues are intent on watching NOAA's "fisheries management experiment" closely, given the potential impact on our neighbors, friends and family.
"I am deeply disappointed that NOAA and the NMFS are not engaged with the industry on this level," she said. "I look forward to hearing about the real time impacts, successes and failures of the implementation."
Fishermen are encouraged to attend and offer public comment on how the new regulations have impacted their business. The offices of Congressman John Tierney, U.S. Sen. John Kerry, and U.S. Sen. Scott Brown have also been invited to attend, Kirk said.
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