Tag Archives: Former Mayor Scott Lang
Blown Away: Offshore wind regulators ignore danger to fishing industry
“This industry, this group of people in the room today, really are the key to unlocking that clean energy future,” Beaudreau, the deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior, proclaimed at a conference hosted by the American Clean Power Association, a lobbying group largely funded by offshore wind developers. Just one year earlier, Beaudreau had been a corporate lawyer, earning part of his $2.4 million income from offshore wind developers. Then he was appointed to regulate the industry he was previously paid to represent. During Beaudreau’s tenure, developers including several of his former clients have gained preliminary or final approvals for an unprecedented expansion of offshore wind, despite repeated warnings from federal scientists about potential harms to marine life and the fishing industry. Photos, >click to read< 07:48
Intense reaction to wind/fishing investigation – >click to read the comments< 4/25/2023
Remembering New Bedford’s1985-86 Fishing Strike
“You fishermen over the years have been screwed royally,” said then-New Bedford City Councilor David P. Williford to a raucous crowd of union fishermen. “But you got sometimes nobody to blame but yourself because you never stuck together. You never had a leader. Well you got one now, and if you don’t stick together this time, you better hang it up.” It’s difficult to imagine America’s top fishing port slowing down for a moment, but in late 1985 the once-unionized seafaring workforce of New Bedford brought operations to a screeching halt when they went on a strike. Then-Mayor John Bullard said at the time that stoppage was costing the industry roughly $1 million per day. >click to read< 08:05
Mayor Jon Mitchell: Rafael arrest not the end of New Bedford fishing industry
Mayor Jon Mitchell said he does not believe that Carlos Rafael’s arrest for conspiracy and falsifying records to skirt federal fishing quotas will result in the demise of New Bedford’s fishing industry. “I’ve heard a lot of talk that this is the death of fishing in New Bedford but I think that is wildly speculative and way overstated,” Mitchell said Monday. “This is not going to shake out in weeks, but years.” Mitchell said that the fate of New Bedford’s fishing industry will be in fuller focus after the criminal case against Rafael is decided. Former Mayor Scott Lang said that Rafael’s practices are not at all reflective of the many smaller fishing operations in the area and praised the efforts the region’s fishermen who have complied with what he described as two decades of challenging regulations. Read the rest here 08:19
Fisheries management reform political, says ex-Mayor Scott Lang
The “middle layer” of the NOAA bureaucracy is not the place to go to seek reforms of a dysfunctional fishery management agency, former Mayor Scott Lang told a meeting of the Center for Sustainable Fisheries Wednesday at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. The theme of the meeting was the worsening problems with NOAA survey trawls in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank. Fishermen and scientists from the UMass Dartmouth School for Marine Science and technology traded accounts of wildly different results from government-run survey trawls and those conducted by the fishing boats, including a collaboration with SMAST. Read the rest here 23:25
Fishery disaster relief a difficult effort – A Story of the Have’s, and the Have Not’s
Former Mayor Scott Lang, who criticized NOAA for setting up a slow process, said the aid plan is becoming “a Christmas tree, trying to do too much with too little for too many people.” “Only 100 or so permit holders of the approximately 700 federal groundfish permit holders in Massachusetts would receive direct federal assistance,” Keating wrote. “The plan also neglects the crew members and supporting shoreside industries who continue to struggle to stay financially solvent as a result of the groundfish disaster.” What a mess! Read more here 07:42
New fishing advocacy group, the Center for Sustainable Fisheries, has ambitious agenda
New Bedford – The first board meeting of the fledgling advocacy group calling itself the Center for Sustainable Fisheries on Wednesday elected former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank as chairman and retired UMass marine scientist Dr. Brian Rothschild as its president and CEO. Former Mayor Scott Lang, who has been steering the organization, said that with both of those men retiring, it was the “perfect opportunity” to bring them into a group that wants a “rational plan” for fisheries management. The group, which hopes to have national reach, has raised $105,000 in three weeks, Lang said. But as it sets out to be a counterweight to environmental groups that have millions of dollars of foundation money at their disposal, fund-raising will be a major issue for the new center. more@sothcoasttoday 04:06
Now this, THIS is exciting!!! Former Mayor Scott Lang forming watchdog group – Dr. Brian Rothschild slated to be executive director
NEW BEDFORD — Former Mayor Scott Lang is taking aim at NOAA fisheries as he organizes a nonprofit to serve as a watchdog and a counterweight to an agency he for years has said has spun out of control. The organization has no name and Lang isn’t saying who will be part of it. But he said he wants scientists, lawyers, fishermen and other industry players who feel that they’ve been pushed aside as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration does its business. continued@southcoasttoday
