GLOUCESTER — In the first instance of state financial assistance focused directly on helping the city’s fishing industry, Senate minority leader Bruce Tarr announced yesterday the city will receive a $75,000 state grant to develop a plan for sustaining the industry’s essential shore-side infrastructure.

The funds, part of a fiscal 2014 state budget allocation that also sent $75,000 to New Bedford, will be used to develop a groundfish Port Recovery and Revitalization Plan for Gloucester.

“My goal behind this is to suggest there are some absolutely linchpin resources around the harbor and if we don’t identify ways to protect them then we’re going to lose them,” Tarr said. “That will be a crippling blow to the fishing industry. Once those shore-side uses disappear, given the value of the property and the strategic importance of it, it’s very unlikely they will return.”

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