49 



New Bedford 



Seafood Coalition 



104 Coop Wharf • New Bedford. MA 02740 



Jim Kendall 

 Executive Director Tel: ( 508 > 997-0013 



Fax: (508) 997-0913 



July 8, 1996 



Report Submitted to 



Subcommittee on Government Programs 



House Committee on Small Business 



My name is James M. Kendall and I am the Executive Director of the New Bedford 

 Seafood Coalition. I am also Co-President of the Massachusetts Fishermen's Partnership I am a 

 former fisherman with 33 years of fishing experience, 16 years of which were as captain of several 

 New Bedford fishing vessels. 



Although my tenures as executive director (September 1995) and as co-president 

 (November 1995) have been brief, let me assure you it has been an active and tumultuous period 

 While this maelstrom is common to the entire New England fisheries, it is to the plight of the 

 Massachusetts' fisheries that I will address my testimony. While my past experience was focused 

 upon the local scallop fishery of New Bedford I am now working closely with, and on behalf of 

 other sectors of the Massachusetts fishing industry. 



arc 



Both the New Bedford Seafood Coalition and the Massachusetts Fishermen's Partnership 

 somewhat unusual in that they both represent more than one sector of the Massachusetts 

 fisheries. The New Bedford Seafood Coalition was formed in order to bring together the greater 

 New Bedford fishing industry at a time when our future was in question. The Massachusetts 

 Fishermen's Partnership was conceived for many of the same reasons, a need to unite the fishers 

 and fishing related industries of the Commonwealth in order to help ensure their existence As I 

 present the situation that presently exists in New Bedford, I believe you will soon come to realize 

 that this predicament is common throughout New England in general and Massachusetts in 

 particular 



The New England and Mid-Atlantic fishing communities realized early on that the 

 management programs that were being effected would be cause for hardship and tight economic 

 times. These situations would not be new or unknown to the industry, as fishermen have always 

 been subject to the ebb and flow of the seas. These would be different in that thev were being ' 

 prescribed in order that the fish stocks could and would return to a healthv status' Much as a 

 patient realizes, that although a medicine may be temble in the taking, it is in their best interest to 

 hold their noses and swallow hard. Little did we know that soon the cure was about to be as bad 



