On the surface, the news that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will be steering $18 million in grants through the Saltonstall-Kennedy Act to fishermen and waterfront businesses in the coming year stands as a bit of good news amid a renewed sea of fisheries crises.

The allocation is, after all, 63 percent higher than the roughly $11 million granted to winning applicants this past year for fisheries research — and that’s something to celebrate, right?

Well, no, not really.

That’s because the Saltonstall-Kennedy Act — the 1954 federal legislation aimed at steering 30 percent of seaport import tariff revenues into supporting and marketing the domestic fishing industry — generates more than $100 million annually from tariff revenues that exceed the $300 million mark.

Read the full story at The Daily News of Newburyport>>

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