To the editor:

Regarding the Nov. 22 Gloucester Daily Times editorial, headlined "Fishermen's letter creates need for fishery referendum," and the comment about "the increasingly shady New England Fishery Management Council" and its efforts to avoid a referendum¬ù for the catch shares program known as sectors, I believe a better understanding of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act is in order.

What’s wrong with this picture? Earlier this month, at the same time the Patrick/Murray Administration was demanding $21 million federal dollars in economic fisheries damages, many of the best fishing businesses that have been catching cod, haddock, and other groundfish in Massachusetts and New England wrote a joint letter to their elected officials telling them that their political actions are putting their businesses at risk. And the politicians and the fishermen are both talking about the same management program.