Massachusetts Congressmen Press Commerce Secretary concerning Private Exchanges for Fishing Catch Allocations
Massachusetts Congressmen Press Commerce Secretary concerning Private Exchanges for Fishing Catch Allocations
WASHINGTON – Massachusetts Congressmen Barney Frank, John Tierney and Bill Keating today released a letter they sent jointly yesterday to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, asking Commerce to exercise its jurisdiction over growing private markets in Allowable Catch Entitlements.
Recently, a private market for catch share allocations, ACExchange (www.ACExchange.org) has mailed advertisements to fishermen to promote its service, which facilitates the online sale, purchase or transfer of fishing rights. This novel marketplace for scarce catch share allocations currently seems to be unregulated.
In their letter, the legislators express their concern that an unregulated market for catch shares could take advantage of buyers and sellers, and that without proper rules in place fishermen would have no mechanism for voicing complaint or gaining restitution. They ask Secretary Locke to move quickly to investigate such markets in order to prevent abuse.
The letter also calls into question the Commerce Department’s overall vision for the catch share program and how it would ultimately function. The authors ask the Secretary, “Did the Department envision such a marketplace when it created the catchshare system in the Northeast fishery?”
Representatives Frank, Tierney and Keating were joined in their action by Congressman Joe Courtney (D-CT) and Congressman Walter Jones (R-NC) who have also been strong supporters of the fishermen.
The letter from the Congressmen to Secretary Lock, and the solicitation from ACE Exchange to Massachusetts fishermen are attached
