GloucesterTimes.com, Gloucester, MA

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$11.3 million for fishermen

By Richard Gaines
Staff Writer
Published: August 27, 2008

The distribution of $11.3 million in relief payments to more than 500 Massachusetts fishing businesses harmed by federal catch limits and other restrictions in the control effort known as Framework 42 will be distributed this week, Gov. Deval Patrick announced yesterday.

The state Division of Marine Fisheries qualified more Gloucester-based businesses, 96, for more of the money, $2,965,561, secured through a joint earmark by U.S. Sens. Edward M. Kennedy and John Kerry than any other port.

Next in both categories was New Bedford. Seventy-one businesses, mostly fishing boats, qualified for $2,262,077.

The division held hearings in both ports and two others before deciding the amounts of the distribution would be proportional to the days at sea allowed in federal permits; also qualifying are fishermen with state permits, charter boat owners and crew members.

The vast majority of the money was directed to federal permit-holders.

Earmarked was $13.4 million but in a fierce political and policy struggle with the senators and the Patrick administration, the federal fisheries regulators of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration claimed $482,000 for processing the grant, and the state took $338,000 for establishing and administering the applications for the aid.

A $225,000 contribution was also made to the health insurance program for fishermen.

Patrick not only announced the relief program but initiated the campaign for it when in February 2007 he petitioned U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez with research for a federal declaration that the Framework 42 efforts to protect the fishery had created an economic disaster for the regulated, who were facing draconian cutbacks in fishing days, places and times to fish and amounts that can be legally brought to market.

When the secretary turned down the request and proposal for $22 million in disaster relief, the two senators and the Congressional delegation organized a by-pass plan keyed to an earmark Kennedy and Kerry executed just before Christmas.

Once the $14.3 million earmark was secured, top Bush administration officials began fighting with the Democrats on how the money should be used.

In February, John Oliver, NOAA's top fishing regulator, proposed to state officials that NOAA would release the funds quickly if they would agree to use the bulk of it to buy fishermen out and reduce the size of the fleet.

Oliver also proposed using the money for "counseling" the newly retired fishermen.

But Kennedy urged NOAA to release "these funds without delay ... to those who need assistance, which was our intent," and Kerry by-passed the NOAA bureaucrats by enlisting William Brennan, NOAA deputy assistant secretary for international affairs, to break the impasse.

Brennan, who was designated to coordinate research on climate change, began working at NOAA with the fisheries service at Wood's Hole.

Kerry yesterday credited Brennan with helping to break the impasse and get the money on the way to fishermen.

"Last week, I met with Dr. Brennan, we talked about the urgent need to sort through the bureaucratic mess ... and I am grateful for his concern and swift action," Kerry said in an e-mail message to the Times in mid-April.

The distribution of the funds beyond Gloucester and New Bedford is as follows: Boston $1.01 million, Chatham $1.01 million, Scituate $551,000, Green Harbor $303,000, Provincetown $239,761, Plymouth $157,577, and Marblehead $144,710.

Next week in Wood's Hole, NOAA's research arm is expected to release a comprehensive groundfish assessment review on which the next chapter of policies aimed at restoring the health of the species will be based.

A preliminary report in June, indicating most species had not responded as quickly as hoped to the past series of constrictions on fishing, fostered widespread disappointment within the fishing industry.

Most members expect discouraging news in Wood's Hole.

The late Phil Ruhle, a prominent fisherman, inventor and government critic who died when his fishing boat sank off New Jersey this summer, surveyed the preliminary data in June and suggested the fishery be shut down until the stocks rebounded.

Few went that far but fishermen were girding for a fight against even more stringent limits on days at sea coming out of the New England Fishery Management Council, which advises NOAA on policy.

Richard Gaines can be reached at rgaines@gloucestertimes.com.

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