Patrick, a longtime friend and political ally of President Obama, sent a letter to the president last Friday expressing "extraordinary frustration" with the U.S. Commerce Department's rejection of multiple requests to lighten the burden on commercial fishing in any of several ways.

While National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief Jane Lubchenco had long turned deaf ears to fishing industry complaints — even after they were documented by Commerce Inspector General Todd Zinser — Commerce Secretary Gary Locke has now caught Lubchenco's insidious stonewalling virus, refusing requests from the governor and congressional leaders to declare that the new NOAA regulatory structure the "economic disaster" it has become, and he has scaled back an earlier promise to seek justice for fishermen targeted by punitive enforcement action by rogue agents within the NOAA's office of law enforcement.

Read the complete editorial from the Gloucester Times.