As per the information the commercial fishermen of New Hampshire will now have relief from the federal government they have sought for so long after U.S. Sens. Judd Gregg and Jeanne Shaheen announced Friday they secured $825,000. It is said that the funds will help the state’s commercial fishermen and lobstermen comply with recent federal rule changes and stay competitive, according to a joint statement issued by the two lawmakers.
It is informed that the federal fund was approved by the Senate as part of the Fiscal Year 2010 Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations bill, which will now go to conference committee to be merged with the House bill. Gregg and Shaheen in a joint statement that New Hampshire’s fishing industries are critical to the economy of Seacoast communities, and require assistance to remain competitive in light of new and existing harvest restrictions.
They also told that this funding is an important step, and we will continue working to minimize the impact of these new regulations on the Granite State’s fishermen and lobstermen. The New Hampshire Commercial Fishermen Sustainability Initiative will allow the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department to provide assistance to the 300 commercial fishermen and lobstermen that have been adversely affected by recent federal fisheries regulations.
Erik Anderson, president of the New Hampshire Commercial Fishermen’s Association in Portsmouth, said previously it could cost lobstermen $1.3 million to replace their trap lines. He said lobstermen like himself were forced to pay money out-of-pocket to replace their trap lines without knowing if they would ever receive any reimbursement from the federal government.
Anderson said that the funding still has to be approved by the U.S. House of Representatives and possibly a joint committee of conference. The federal funding was approved one week after hundreds of commercial fishermen from Maine to Maryland converged on Gloucester, Mass., to stage a rally in front of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Fisheries Service office as the deadline to file submissions by fishermen to prove what the correct catch histories were between 1996 and 2006 loomed on Saturday, Oct. 31.
