John Kerry: “I strongly support helping New England fishermen and their communities, and by that I mean helping them now, when they…”

“I strongly support helping New England fishermen and their communities, and by that I mean helping them now, when they need it, not later this year or next year, but now. And I want to thank our distinguished Chairman of the Appropriations Committee Senator Byrd and the Ranking Member Senator Stevens. I would also like to thank Chairman Hollings of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State and the Judiciary and the Subcommittee Ranking Member, Senator Gregg, for their steadfast support of the New England fishermen and for including provisions to help fishermen and fishing communities in New England recover from the effects of a devastating lawsuit which is already having severe economic consequences in New England. The entire New England groundfish industry is reeling from a lawsuit that was finally decided on May 23. I would like to point out that the fishing season starts on May 1, so the fishermen and the shore side industry learned the rules by which they must live less than a month into the season. It's hard to plan a fishing season under those circumstances. And the ramifications reach beyond just our fishermen. We have over 1,000 active groundfish boats in New England employing thousands of fishermen, and economists estimate that for each job on a fishing vessel we have four jobs on shore to support the industry.”