Recognizing that our commercial fishing fleet in Marshfield & Scituate account for over 150 small businesses I was pleased to participate Monday in a substantive round table discussion with representatives from the fishing industry, federal and state officials to discuss numerous challenges facing the industry.

The conference was organized by US Senator John Kerry as an opportunity to discuss concerns with new fishing regulations which take effect May 1, to investigate proposals for an independent review of data upon which allowable fish catch are determined, and to change a current atmosphere of overzealous criminal prosecution by federal officials against fishermen. All agreed that we need sensible regulations to ensure the future viability of our fishing stock but we continue to be frustrated by some arbitrary decisions by federal regulators. If federal regulators do not review some questioned science and provide some flexibility in the proposed regulations it is estimated that approximately 50% of our fishing fleet go bankrupt by August,. Stay tuned …