FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (Note:  There's something very fishy here.  The fishermen stand to lose a lot more than what's mentioned.) SNOWE AND COLLINS FIGHT TO EXPAND $10 MILLION BUYOUT PROGRAM FOR NEW ENGLAND FISHERMEN Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins are urging Senate Agriculture conferees to support $10 million in funding for a voluntary fishing capacity reduction program that permanently revokes fishing permits to reduce fishing capacity in the Northeast. Last month, the Senate unanimously passed Snowe’s amendment to provide the funds and expand the buyout program as part of the Farm Bill, which is currently pending in a joint House-Senate conference committee. Snowe and Collins joined with Senators John Kerry and Edward Kennedy in urging Senate conferees to back the funding. They made their request in letters to Senators Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the Senate Agriculture Committee. “These funds will allow hard-working New England fishermen to retire with dignity, while the work continues to rebuild our fish stocks to sustainable levels. It will help end the cycle of boom and bust that plagues our fisheries and assist in development a long-term sustainable fishery in New England.” the Senators said. The program will permanently revoke Northeast multi-species fishing permits using a “reverse auction,” a measure developed to ensure removal of the maximum amount of capacity from the fishery at the lowest possible price to taxpayers. New England has more than 1,600 permits, two-thirds of which allow fishermen to fish for only 88 days  each year. The remaining fishermen can fish, on average, 130 days a year based on historical days-at-sea usage. As a result of a similar provision secured by Snowe and others in July of 2000, the National Marine Fisheries Service has begun the process of reducing latent capacity in this fishery. It is expected that this  will permanently remove200 permits from the fishery. However, recent events in New England indicate  the need to expand this program further. “We are concerned that the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia will likely implement a government proposed remedy that would reduce days-at-sea for Gulf of Maine fishermen by 50%,” said the Senators. “Under the government’s proposed remedy these small boat fishermen, who in the past could fish for 88 days will now see their opportunities cut in half to 44 days. These are small boats owned and operated by fishing families. Obviously these working families will be severely affected by such cuts. We desperately need to reduce capacity in the fishery so that the operators that remain can earn a decent living from the sea. The current latent permit capacity reduction program will help tremendously, but we are convinced a second round is needed to build a sustainable fishery.” http://www.asmainegoes.com/ubb-scripts/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=010561&p For more information, call: Dave Lackey (Snowe) - 202-224-5344 Felicia Knight (Collins) - 202-224-2523

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