Updates

• Division of Marine Fisheries response to NOAA Fisheries request (5/5/08)
• Letter from NOAA Fisheries requesting more information (4/24/08)
• Final Proposal for Use of Federal Groundfish Assistance Funds (4/16/08)
• 2008 Groundfish Assistance Public Meeting Program (4/2/08)

Public Meeting Schedule

• April 1, 2008 (5:30PM) - New Bedford
• April 2, 2008 (5:30PM) - Plymouth
• April 3, 2008 (5:30PM) - Gloucester

For more information, please see Public Meeting Advisory

Background
A 2008 Congressional Appropriations Conference Report provides $13.4-million “to the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries to alleviate economic impacts associated with Framework 42 regulations on the Massachusetts groundfish fishery.” Senators Kennedy and Kerry led the effort to ensure these funds were made available to Commonwealth fishermen, along with Congressmen John Tierney, Barney Frank and William Delahunt. The Division of Marine Fisheries (MarineFisheries) is currently developing a disbursement program, in consultation with members of the fishing industry, Commissioner of the Department of Fish & Game and representatives of the Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs.

Planning Process
MarineFisheries is evaluating potential uses of these funds to 1) optimize program benefits, and 2) to make spending decisions in a judicious manner. To ensure the framework used to develop this program is transparent and timely, Secretary Bowles instructed MarineFisheries to meet with a state Drafting Group and an Industry Subcommittee to develop a public information document detailing proposed appropriations of funds by activity. This document will be taken out to a series of public meetings by MarineFisheries in early April.

NOAA Fisheries has provided some guidelines for acceptable use of these funds “to ensure this funding leads to improvements in the groundfish fishery that we can collectively measure while also meeting the short-term needs of fishermen.” In general, they have suggested up to 50% of the funding for subsidies, 40-60% for capacity reduction, and 10-15% for future management measures and administration. The Commonwealth will give these recommendations close scrutiny, but will rely heavily on its own public process to develop a proposal.

Drafting Group
In addition to Commissioner Griffin, members of the Drafting Group include MarineFisheries Director Diodati, representatives of the Massachusetts Office of Business Development and the Executive Office of Energy & Environmental Affairs and an economist from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth .

Advisories

For further information contact: Melanie Griffin