Commerce team to visit Montauk fishermen

The U.S. Commerce Department will send an economic assessment team on a two-day visit to Montauk within two months to meet local leaders in the fishing community on issues from financing to whether a 10-year timeline to rebuild "overfished" species is reasonable.

"Right now our fishermen are dealing with a regulatory structure that relies on arbitrary timelines and bureaucrats hundreds of miles away from fishing communities," Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday.

Teams will visit five other Northeast areas with tactics for long-haul survival and to "help communities identify and begin to address the economic difficulties they are facing," according to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke.