The Hyper Consolidation of Our Fleet seems To Have Some Backlash According To Today’s Gloucester Daily Times Article

Gaines writes-

Fishermen’s ‘catch share’ letter sparks furor

Facilitated by officers of influential industry groups — including members of the Gloucester-based Northeast Seafood Coalition — the letter signed by the 109 fishermen, roughly a quarter of the current New England groundfishing fleet, included 15 from Cape Ann and asserted that elected officials, while responding to minority calls "amplified in the media," have put their businesses at risk with "a series of increasingly dangerous proposals."

These include accumulation caps, setting aside community quota, putting limits on trading catch shares across vessel and gear-type categories, according to leaders of the seafood coalition, which, since its 2002 founding, has grown to become the largest industry umbrella in New England.

Gloucester Mayor Carolyn Kirk said she was surprised by "many of the names on the letter supporting catch shares."

"The catch share system is collapsing," said Lang in a telephone interview. "What would motivate the fishermen to write the letter saying catch shares are fine with us?"

Click here for the entire article

Back in 2009 I started to keep a collection the articles about the Hyper-Consolidation of our fleet in a thread on Cape Ann Online

It seems all those predictions made back then have been dead on.

Video Produced by Erika Street Two years ago. Ann Malloy, Frank Rose, Scott Memhard, Beanie Nicastro and Yours truly are interviewed for this documentary about the effects of Fishing Industry Consolidation on the City of Gloucester.
http://blip.tv/file/3722238