That is not to say that our State has not done a lot. The Weld- 

 Cellucci administration has gone to extraordinary lengths to sup- 

 port our fishing industry. We have supported $5 million in funding 

 for a vessel retrofitting loan fund. We are working to assist hun- 

 dreds of individuals through retraining programs and crisis coun- 

 seling at three family assistance centers. We continue to promote 

 use of nontraditional species through new State marketing plans. 

 We are developing improved fishing gear through conservation en- 

 gineering that will enable fishermen to fish for other species with- 

 out catching groundfish in need of conservation. 



But more is needed. What the SBA is uniquely able to provide 

 is an emergency working capital loan program to sustain fishermen 

 through this difficult period, and that is why we come today to seek 

 your help. 



The severe economic loss caused by the collapse of groundfish 

 stocks is a natural disaster. In all of its submissions to FEMA and 

 SBA, we have provided compelling scientific arguments describing 

 the natural disaster aspects of the Commonwealth's fishing crisis. 

 However, both SBA and FEMA both have stated that our fishing 

 situation is not a disaster, and both have failed to be open minded 

 about all of the causes that are behind the crisis that we are now 

 confronted with. 



Our request for a natural disaster declaration and assistance by 

 FEMA and SBA acknowledges that fishing mortality is important 

 and must be controlled. That is why Massachusetts has played a 

 lead role in helping to develop new Federal fishing regulations to 

 rebuild cod and haddock and yellowtail flounder. 



As an example, the New England Fishery Management Council, 

 of which Massachusetts is a leading participant, hopes to rebuild 

 groundfish stocks by further tightening regulations. These are 

 known as Amendment 7, as you know. Despite their controversial 

 nature, we have firmly stood behind these new regulations going 

 into place. 



What is needed now, however, is an acknowledgment that natu- 

 ral factors, too, have played a major role in the collapse and will 

 seriously hinder fisheries' recovery, even if fishing mortality is re- 

 duced to zero. 



We have demonstrated that the potential for critical improved re- 

 cruitment, defined as good production of young fish, or year-classes, 

 on which the future of the fisheries depend, is low due to natural 

 factors, and these factors have created a disaster for Massachu- 

 setts' groundfish fishing industry. 



The SBA denial is particularly puzzling in light of the fact that 

 the Commerce Secretary in 1995, as part of declaring a fishery re- 

 source disaster, declared "the damaged condition of fishery re- 

 sources beyond the control of individual fishermen" and recognized 

 "the disappearance of periodic strong year-classes that have long 

 sustained a healthy commercial fishery." 



Even the December denial of FEMA assistance by Director Jamie 

 Witt recognized that "a combination of natural factors," including 

 predation, competition, and general warming trends in water tem- 

 peratures, "aggravated" the decline of groundfish stocks in the 

 Georges Bank and the Gulf of Maine. 



