GloucesterTimes.com, Gloucester, MA

A U.S. Senate resolution calling on federal regulators to declare a fishing disaster in the Northeast met with a quick response: No.

Hours after the resolution passed, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it was standing by its decision that commercial fisheries in New England are not failing.

The U.S. Senate yesterday unanimously passed the resolution asking the Secretary of Commerce to reverse his decision not to declare a commercial fishery failure in Massachusetts and several other states, but the request was immediately rejected.

"The NOAA does not support the resolution and does not plan to reconsider the decision," said NOAA spokeswoman Monica Allen yesterday afternoon.

In October, to the dismay of commercial fishermen and New England legislators, Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez and NOAA, an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department, refused Gov. Deval Patrick's request to declare a commercial fishery failure in Massachusetts. The move could have provided tens of millions of dollars in aid for struggling fishermen. Similar requests from Maine and Rhode Island also were denied.

New England legislators have expressed dissatisfaction with NOAA's decision since it was issued. Last month, Sens. John Kerry and Edward M. Kennedy, both D-Mass., along with eight Massachusetts congressmen, including John Tierney, D-Salem, signed a letter to Gutierrez urging him to reconsider declaring a fishing disaster.

Yesterday, the legislators sent an even stronger message with the resolution, offered by Kerry and Kennedy along with senators from Rhode Island, Maine and New Hampshire. However, Allen said she is not aware of any actions the Senate or anyone else could take to force NOAA to reconsider or change its decision.

"New England's fishermen and their families desperately need help," Kerry said in response to NOAA's refusal to reconsider. "As fishing stocks diminish and fishing restrictions increase, thousands of our hardworking men and women are struggling to survive this holiday season. Talk to any of them and they will tell you this situation is a disaster. It is unconscionable that anyone would think otherwise."

A representative from Kennedy's office said that the senator's position on the issue was made clear by not only this resolution, but also by the letter to Gutierrez he cosigned in November, and that he was now waiting for a response from the Department of Commerce.

Patrick asked the federal government for the emergency declaration in February, after more stringent regulations to speed up the rebuilding of fisheries took effect. The new rules halved the number of days fishermen were allowed to work at sea.

When the NOAA denied the request, NOAA Deputy Director Sam Rauch said that historically, disasters are declared when stocks of species are either collapsing or on the verge of collapse, and Northeast fish stocks are increasing, not collapsing, at the moment.

What exactly determines a disaster regulation is laid out in the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the federal fishery management law. Allen said that NOAA had gone by the law when deciding to deny Massachusetts' request. Commercial fisheries, she said, are not failing.

Fishing industry advocates rebuff the argument, saying the fish stock may be rebuilding, but fishermen are in an economic disaster. The restrictions imposed by New England regulators to get fish stocks rebuilding at the rate required by federal law have seriously limited how often they can fish and what they can fish for.

According to NOAA findings, total weight and value of the fish catch in Gloucester is on the upswing, despite the restrictions. However, the same data shows that the weight of groundfish was stagnant here from 2001 to 2005, hovering between 17 million and 18 million pounds. Its value increased slightly over that time, reflecting price increases for a scarcer resource, rising from $17.2 million in 2003 to $19.6 million last year.

Fishing advocate Vito Giacalone, who handles governmental affairs for the Northeast Seafood Coalition, told the Times in February that while the total weight of seafood and its value have increased steadily over the past few years, groundfishermen have been struggling because of a reduction in the days they are allowed to fish and limits on how much fish they can land. The increase comes from strong landings of pelagics, or fish such as herring that live above the ocean bottom.

"We did find some difficulty in Massachusetts and in Maine, but nowhere near a failure," Allen said yesterday. "We stand by our decision."

Kerry did not outline a specific plan of action after NOAA's rejection of the resolution. "Regardless of Commerce's decision, my colleagues and I will continue to do all that we can to make sure that the assistance gets into the hands of those who need it most," he said.

Gloucester fishermen may need to seek relief from other avenues, including $15 million in aid to Massachusetts fishermen that the U.S. Senate approved in October. A different version of the bill was approved by the House of Representatives, and it is awaiting approval from a conference committee. That money was not dependent on the NOAA declaring an economic disaster.

Allen agreed that a misinterpretation of what exactly constituted a fishery failure may have played into the discontented response of legislators and fishing industry advocates to the NOAA's decision. She said that the bureau would be "rulemaking," or clarifying, the portion of the law that provides a decision-making process for declaring a fishery disaster early next year.

NOAA has invited public comment on the rulemaking process, which Allen said has been planned since Magnuson-Stevens was reauthorized last year, before Massachusetts made a request for relief. More information can be found at http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/msa2007/docs/NMFS_request4comments_disaster_assistance.pdf.