Contact:  Gordon Helm                          FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
          (301) 713-2370                       10/11/95
          Matt Stout
          (202) 482-6090

13 NEW ENGLAND FISHERMEN SELECTED IN $2 MILLION FISHING CAPACITY REDUCTION PROGRAM; 114 APPLICANTS SOUGHT BUYOUT FUNDS

Thirteen New England fishermen have been selected for a $2 million program as part of Commerce Department efforts to drastically reduce fishing and shore up depleted fish stocks in the region, Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. The program will pay these fishermen to scrap their fishing vessels and surrender their fishing permits.

The 13 best scoring applicants, their city and state, and vessel names are: (1) David Leveille, Gloucester, Mass., Vicki L; (2) Alfred F. Gauron, Greenland, N.H., Jerri Ann; (3) East End Fisheries Corp., Plympton, Mass., Mystic Light; (4) Max G. Gunn, Portsmouth, N.H., Portsmouth Trust (5) Laurie Ellen, Inc., South Portland, Maine, Ryan Gregory (6) Stuart Wayne Tolley, Chatham, Mass., Lone Wolf; (7) Kavanagh Fisheries, Inc., New Bedford, Mass., Susie K; (8)Donna Maria Urbanski, Gloucester, Mass., Naomi Bruce III; (9) Donald H. Lowe Jr., Gloucester, Mass., Anne Rowe; (10) Restless Inc., Portland, Maine, General George S. Patton; (11) SPR Fishing Corp., New Bedford, Mass., S Pedro; (12) Braga Fishing Corp., New Bedford, Mass., Sunshine; and (13) Miss Amanda Inc., Gloucester, Mass., Dolores Louise.

"The decline of traditional Northeast fisheries resources requires drastically reduced fishing, and this program demonstrates one potential for helping resolve this dilemma," said Douglas K. Hall, Commerce's assistant secretary for oceans and atmosphere. "We are laying the foundation for a larger capacity reduction effort."

"We hope to find a workable way to lessen the adversity fishery depletion will cause fishermen, their families and their local economies," added Rollie Schmitten, director of NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service. "This pilot program demonstrates there is a huge demand for our fishing capacity reduction efforts."

The 13 applicants will use all $2 million of the demonstration funds. These 13 vessels produce about 2.6 percent of all revenues from the regulated groundfish species.

One hundred and fourteen vessel owners, with vessels worth a total of $52 million, applied to participate in the $2 million program. Had the program been funded enough to accept all the applications to scrap vessels and surrender permits, more than 31 percent of all groundfish capacity could have been eliminated in the Northeast.

Successful applicants were chosen by a scoring formula developed with input from the fishing industry that established which offers involved the least scrapping cost per dollar of previous groundfish production. Payment to successful applicants will be contingent upon verification of information contained in the applications and approval of the owners' proposed vessel scrapping plans. Upon payment, successful applicants will immediately surrender their fishing permits and promptly scrap their vessels.

"This demonstration program has thus far been successful beyond our expectations," said John Bullard, director of NOAAþs Office of Sustainable Development. "We will now incorporate the successful components of this program into the design of a much larger program for capacity reduction."

In addition to this $2 million pilot program, Secretary of Commerce Ronald H. Brown made available on Aug. 3, 1995, $25 million for an expanded vessel buyout program in the Northeast.