Fisherman Reaching Out to New England Congressional Delegation to Support Senator Murkowski’s S.B. 437
Recently, President Obama declared a large area of the Continental Shelf closed to fishing by Executive Order designating New England Coral Canyons and Seamounts National Marine Monument. As a retired fisherman, I am very concerned with more and more Monument area’s that forbid our fisherman from fishing in those waters. I fished these waters back in the 60’s for whiting in March, April, and May. This was good because we laid off fishing for haddock cod flounder groundfish. There were also off shore lobster men there. We had a 90 foot dragger and we saw one the first off shore lobster boats out there. When my Dad saw him in that 45 foot boat, he said he was nuts! Lobster and Red Crab will continue fishing there for seven years, while fishermen were excluded in mid-November. I would like to reach out to our Senators and Congressmen in New England and ask them for their support of Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski’s Senate Bill 437, the “Improved National Monument Designation Process Act” that in essence would have input from each state before going to Congress.
It says, “The President may not declare any area of the exclusive economic zone to be a marine national monument unless: it is specifically authorized by Congress, the President has certified compliance with NEPA, and each state legislature within 100 nautical miles of the proposed monument has approved it. Neither the Department of the Interior nor the Department of Commerce may implement a restriction on the public use of a marine national monument until the expiration of an appropriate review period providing for public input and congressional approval.”
Thanks to Senator Murkowski, we might put a halt to more monuments. After all, those in the fishing industry and the consumer they serve have the most to lose. Senator Murkowski has twenty-six senators on board and I commend her and Senator Sullivan for their efforts to help our fisherman all over.
Thank You, Sam Parisi ,Gloucester Proud to have been a fisherman
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