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Reply #1: That's a great letter and I hope that he gets the help he deserves [View All]

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karynnj Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Oct-24-11 12:23 PM
Response to Original message
1. That's a great letter and I hope that he gets the help he deserves
Edited on Mon Oct-24-11 12:33 PM by karynnj
Making him and another MA fisherman whole was one of Kerry's 10 demands on the head of NOAH.


In all, Kerry's nearly 2,500-word letter discusses 10 specific issues and requests, including a public appeal for NOAA to rectify personal economic disasters suffered by two Massachusetts fishermen — Kevin Scola of Marshfield and Jim Keding of Plymouth — as a direct result of "bureaucratic mistakes."
<snip>
"For those of us who believe in government, but also believe in accountability," Kerry wrote, "it is only common sense that we ensure that when such mistakes are made, people are made whole — that's ultimately how we maintain people's faith in government. We simply have to help these two fishermen," he wrote.

http://www.gloucestertimes.com/local/x859489584/Kerry-urges-NOAA-chief-to-admit-disaster

This issue really does contrast the two Senators. Brown is grandstanding calling on Obama to fire the head of NOAH and sponsoring a bill with Ayotte that would likely scrap all regulation - ignoring why regulations were written in the first place. (Various Democrats have also called for her to be fired - but it doesn't seem Brown has support for his legislation.)

(I have tried to follow the various articles because they are interesting and this really is a hot issue. I remember years ago when TayTay was hoping someone would watch the fisheries hearings when she did - I now see that even though they seemed arcane and really boring, they affect lives in MA in a big way.)

It may interest MA voters especially to see Warren's comments on this from an interview with Blue Mass Group. HUGE contrast with Brown!



Much later in the conversation, Charley asked Warren to comment on an issue that is extremely important locally, namely, fisheries. He noted that Scott Brown had recently filed a bill on fisheries (Brown has also just called for the head of NOAA to be fired, though that call came after our interview), and he wondered whether Warren (a) supported Brown’s bill, and more broadly (b) “what do you know about fisheries?” Warren responded that she has been working with Ann-Margaret Ferrante (D-Gloucester) and Barney Frank to learn about issues around the fisheries. She said that it was clear that there must be changes in the way NOAA manages the fisheries, and she noted that there are problems both in enforcement and in the science being used. But more broadly, she said:

This is what’s so interesting: how it connects up to the heart of what I’ve been working on. The fishermen want regulations. No one is saying, “whoa, take off the wet blanket of regulation, and take it away from us” because they know the consequence would be that the big fleets would come in, suck out all the resources, and leave us with sterile fishing beds. Nobody wants that. The only question is what’s the best way to manage an ongoing viable fishing industry while we’re trying to let the waters recover…. So here’s what’s so interesting about it. The rules, right now, have been written to favor the largest fishing operations, and they really are operations, these fishing factories. And they’re not written for the day boats. And why this matters is not just some sort of romantic attachment to the notion of the “yeoman fisherman.” It matters for two reasons. One is, that’s what keeps jobs in the United States. If the fishing factories can come in from Norway or from Iceland and stay for seven days out in the waters, we can manage them to make sure they don’t take out all the fish, that’s fine, but they will bring nothing into our economy here in the United States. They’ll take our resource, but they’ll do it without spending one red cent here. They bring their own groceries with them, stay on their own ships, and go back home, and that’s their floating factory. The way the industry is set up right now, all those jobs are in the United States, and it’s the boat and the boat repair folks and the crews that you hire and the groceries they buy when they go out to sea, that’s what keeps us vital as a nation. The second part of it is that it actually produces more value. When the guys come in on the big fleets, they’re out away from port for at least seven to ten days, which means all the fish has to be frozen. And so this idea of having this fresh-caught fish, which is why there’s a premium paid for the fish out of Gloucester because it’s fresh, and they’re air-shipping a lot of it to Chicago, to San Francisco, because we have this fabulous value-creating business that’s going here.

http://bluemassgroup.com/2011/10/bmg-chats-up-elizabeth-warren/

The new commerce secretary is planning to visit MA fishermen - http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/af2f7f97211f47c5816993f3c43b194f/MA--Fishing-Rules-Bryson/


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