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The New England Fishery Management Council made the right move recently, voting to ask the federal government to suspend an at-sea monitoring program required of the groundfish industry, according to long-time fishermen Fred Mattera, who said shifting the cost to fishermen could decimate the industry.

Mattera, who was a commercial fisherman for 40 years, said fishermen already have to deal with quota cutbacks and depressed prices for locally caught fish.

“So here we are creating an economic hardship,” said Mattera. “We’re asking them now to pay anywhere between $400 to $500 a day for an at-sea monitor. And we’re taking all this fish away from them. And costs – they’re increasing. So that formula doesn’t work.”

Read the full story at Rhode Island National Public Radio >>

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