Press Releases

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree this week introduced legislation that would create jobs for Maine fishermen, invest in coastal infrastructure and help regulators do a better job managing fishing stocks.
 
“In the short term, this program is going to put fishermen back to work in coastal communities,” Pingree said. “And over the long term it is going to provide new opportunities for jobs and economic development by investing in fishermen, the science and the infrastructure that supports our fishermen.”
 
Pingree, along with Reps. Frank Pallone of New Jersey and Carol Shea-Porter of New Hampshire, introduced the Coastal Jobs Creation Act of 2010 this week.  The  program will support new research into fishing stocks, revitalization of coastal infrastructure and the removal of marine debris.  All aspects of the program will be funded with the intention of directly creating jobs in coastal communities.
 
Pingree says that better research is needed so regulators have better information and don’t have to order such drastic reductions in quotas.  And the proposal she introduced this week would hire fishermen to do this research.
 
“The people who know the fishery the best are the ones who have spent their lives making a living on the water,” Pingree said. “I can’t think of anyone better qualified to be out there collecting the data we need to manage the resources. We should be hiring fishermen and their boats to do that work.”
 
In one example of how the program could work, the Gulf of Maine Research Institute has proposed hiring ten lobstermen to do a herring survey.  That would create ten jobs while at the same time collecting important information about the herring population.
 
“The herring quota has been cut dramatically in the last few years,” Pingree said.  “If we had better science, those cuts might not have been so drastic.”
 
The Coastal Jobs Creation Act also funds research into new fishing gear to help fishermen address issues like whale entanglement. In addition, the program would help fishing communities preserve access to the water for commercial fishermen by buying, building or repairing water front facilities like docks.
 
The program also includes funding for the GoMOOS buoys along the coast of Maine and the development of the “next generation” of buoys, which could also measure nutrients in the water and better monitoring of red tide.  Currently four critical GoMOOS buoys have been taken out of the water because of lack of funding.
 
“Today we saw the first shellfish closures and I’m worried it’s going to be another very bad season for red tide,” Pingree said. “If we can monitor red tide with new buoys we will have a better understanding of how it spreads and be able to reopen shellfish beds more quickly.”NOTE:  The first red tide shellfish closures of the year were announced today, for an area from Harpswell to the ME/NH border.