by Dan Bacher

Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) yesterday announced that he will file an amicus curiae brief in support of the pending lawsuit by the cities of New Bedford and Gloucester regarding the Obama administration’s proposed catch share program. Frank also said that he plans to organize Members of Congress to join the brief.

The catch share program, supported by NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenko, creates a de facto privatization of ocean resources. Where catch shares have been implemented, the inevitable result is the concentration of public trust fisheries into the hands of few big corporate fishing operations.

“The fact that the Obama administration has so far refused our request to increase allocations for this fishing season makes the catch share program completely unworkable,” said Frank. “Catch shares is a controversial and radical change, and to institute this new system while also drastically reducing catch allocations guarantees that it would be devastating to the fishing industry. For this reason, I will support the cities’ lawsuit.”

Frank spoke with Mayor Lang yesterday to discuss the lawsuit and they will continue to work closely on this issue.

The catch shares program is opposed by a broad coalition of fishing, environmental and consumer groups throughout the country. This scheme occurs in the broader context of the increasing corporate privatization of global ocean public trust resources.

“The ocean waters around the United States and the wildlife in them are important to our health, wealth, and future,” according to Food and Water Watch. “Each one of us has the privilege to use them and the right to help protect them. Unfortunately, right now a plan is underway to limit access to ocean resources to only a handful of individuals and corporations under the guise of conservation.”

In California, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s fast-track Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative, overseen by oil industry, marina development, real estate and other corporate interests, is funded privately by the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation. The initiative, rife with conflicts of interests, corrruption, racism and mission creep, is a cynical attempt to kick Indian Tribes, fishermen and seaweed harvesters off the traditional areas of the ocean while doing nothing to stop pollution, oil drilling and habitat destruction.

Both the MLPA in California and attempts by the Obama administration to privatize ocean resources through the catch share program and ocean zoning must be opposed by all of those who want to see our nation’s fisheries restored and stop the seizure of our country’s fisheries by greedy corporate interests. I applaud Frank’s filing of an amicus brief against the catch shares program.

Help fight for our oceans and stop the catch shares program by going to www.foodandwaterwatch.org.