Federal Financial Programs Affecting Commercial Fisheries: Hearing Before the National Ocean Policy Study of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and ... One Hundred Third Congress (Classic Reprint) - Tapa blanda

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Excerpt from Federal Financial Programs Affecting Commercial Fisheries: Hearing Before the National Ocean Policy Study of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation United States Senate, One Hundred Third Congress

The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 a.m. in room SR-253, Russell Senate Office Building, Hon. John F. Kerry, presiding. Staff members assigned to this hearing: Penelope D. Dalton and Lila H. Helms, professional staff members; and John A. Moran, minority staff counsel.

Opening Statement Of Senator Kerry

Senator Kerry. Good morning. I apologize for being a couple of minutes late.

The National Ocean Policy Study Committee meets today to discuss an issue of enormous importance to fishermen all over the United States. We want to explore and elicit ideas regarding the revitalization and reinvestment in our Nations fishing industry.

Certainly, speaking for my own State of Massachusetts, the status of ground fisheries and scallop fisheries is grim, and we had a very tough example of confrontation last week.

Throughout the years following the enactment of the Magnuson Act in 1976, we have seen a decade in which we had too many boats chasing too few fish. The result has been a serious depletion of the cod and flounder stocks, and a virtual destruction of the haddock stock.

Now, for centuries, as all of us know, Georges Bank has provided fishermen from Nova Scotia to Point Judith with some of the richest fishing grounds in the world. Today, that bank is ruled by dogfish and skate.

The New England fishing industry is a billion dollar contributor to our economy, and it is the economic heart and soul of coastal communities like Gloucester and New Bedford, Ma. It also, I might add, stands as a symbol of our identity as a maritime nation, and these ports are well-known throughout the United States and the world for that fact.

I think we all have a stake in seeing the fishing industry survive not only for symbolic reasons, but also for economic reasons, as well as the service it provides to the Nation. To achieve that goal, we are going to have to plan, and we are going to have to come together in ways that in the past 10 to 15 years, neither Government nor the industry has seemed to show willingness to do.

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