John Tierney: “Right now, fishermen in Gloucester, Massachusetts--which is in my district--and across the country are facing dire…”

“Right now, fishermen in Gloucester, Massachusetts--which is in my district--and across the country are facing dire circumstances. There have been devastating cuts to the allowable catch of a number of crucial stocks; for instance, a 78 percent cut in Gulf of Maine cod, a 61 percent cut to Georges Bank cod. Consequently, some of these fishermen already have been forced to sell their boats and their permits, while others feel that they will soon be out of business. Many of my Massachusetts colleagues and I have been doing everything we can to help these fishermen and their families. We've offered amendments to last year's disaster relief appropriations bill for those fishermen in Massachusetts and the several other States that were officially declared fisheries disasters by the Department of Commerce, but to no avail. I filed legislation to redirect a portion of the tariffs that the United States collects on imported fish to provide urgently needed financial assistance for our fishermen, but that matter has yet to come up. A number of us are working to responsibly reform the underlying Federal statute--the Magnuson-Stevens Act--that governs our Nation's fisheries so the law is more flexible and fairer toward our fishermen, but of course that is somewhere down the road. I don't think we can stop there, and that's why I--along with Mr. Markey, Mr. Lynch, Mr. Keating, Mr. Tim Bishop and Ms.…”