Tag Archives: federal disaster funds

How Gloucester won lion’s share of fishing aid

cashAll things considered, it could not have gone much better. The small working group assembled by Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken in February was tasked with helping identify and contact city waterfront businesses that might be eligible to receive some of the $750,000 in federal funds set aside to help Massachusetts shoreside businesses damaged by the ongoing groundfish disaster. The committee identified 15 Gloucester businesses willing to go through the application process. By comparison, consider . The historic whaling city on the state’s southeast coast — and now, thanks to its burgeoning scallop fleet, the state’s most lucrative port — had 10 of its shoreside businesses collectively receive $246,430. Read the rest here 08:21

Disaster aid belongs to the fishing industry – It’s no wonder the industry views NOAA with suspicion

NOAA has in recent weeks been casting about for a pool of money to tap for its controversial onboard fishing cash. Efforts to make fishermen pay directly for the program — yet another unfunded federal mandate — have so far fallen short.,,,  states sill have about $10 million in the ‘third bin,’” John Bullard said. “(Monitoring) would be an eligible use of those funds.” Let us not forget one reason NOAA wants to expand its lobster monitoring program is because it has to spend the money it has budgeted for that plan.  Read the rest here 13:25

New Hampshire’s Yankee Co-op to use federal funds for equipment, repairs

yfc_logoAccording to Seabrook Yankee Fisherman’s Cooperative manager Peter Kendall, the Granite State’s portion of that is $1,136,400, with $267,200 headed to the Co-op for much-needed equipment and repairs. “The money for this was distributed based on the level of impact the fishing regulations of the past few years had on the states’ fishing industries,” Kendall said yesterday. “New Hampshire was impacted very hard, among the worst.” Read the rest here  11:09

Editorial: NOAA owes answers regarding latest fishing aid delay

gdt iconIt’s been 11 months now since Congress allocated $75 million in  to help ease the effects of the economic disaster that has befallen fisheries around the nation, with more than $30 million targeted to aid the Northeast groundfishery, and $14.9 million of it headed for Massachusetts. Read the rest here 17:07

Our View: Help the little guy in the fisheries, and help him now

sct logoBoat owners aren’t obligated under the federal program to give any of the money to members of the crew, and from what we hear, precious few will. That’s why it’s important for Massachusetts to come up with a better way to slice up the $8.2 million pie “¦ and do it faster than the feds, who won’t be cutting their checks until Oct. 1. Read more here 07:28