In fact, fishermen and waterfront business owners in New England and around the nation aren't looking for this level of economic aid, or any other handouts.

Throwing money around won't fix the problems of  the fishing industry. The only thing that will is to have Bryson and Lubchenco concede what fishermen and the lawmakers who back them already know. Lubchenco's job-killing catch share management system, designed by the Environmental Defense Fund for its corporate backers, has been an economic disaster by design, actually aimed at steering more and more fishermen's quota into the hands of larger boats and corporations. And it continues to drive out small, independent boats while creating what amounts to an "agribusiness of the seas," akin to the corporate dominance that long ago swallowed the family farm.

There's really been no need for Bryson or Lubchenco to even wait for the governor's latest disaster declaration request. Indeed, Patrick, using data compiled by the marine science center at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth last year, had made a clear case for such a declaration last year — only to have then-Secretary Gary Locke, now our ambassador to China — fail to stand up to Lubchenco and make the justified call.

Read the complete editorial by The Gloucester Times.