SavingSeaFood - EDITORIAL: Unity and influence

EDITORIAL: Unity and influence

The fishing industry has not always spoken with one voice. Groundfishermen and scallopers have usually pursued their own agendas, but the proposed 2010 scallop limits represented such a dire economic threat to fishermen, processors and the region's overall economic well-being that it produced a unified opposition that succeeded in forcing the council to back off.

Following the decision to scrap the strict limits after numerous questions about the scientific assumptions the council was using, some members of the council were reduced to sputtering about the political pressure and press criticism they had been subjected to.

Hundreds of fishermen, local political leaders from New Bedford, the region's legislative delegation and congressional leadership, especially U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, intervened.

They also got the attention of Gov. Deval Patrick, who convinced the council's chairman, John Pappalardo, to reconsider the proposed limits — despite Pappalardo's insistence that the council was unwilling to do so.

Read the complete story at The South Coast Today [subscription site]

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Jane Lubchenco made one very important public commitment — on the record and under oath. She noted that the problems in enforcement of fishery regulations, documented in a blistering report by U.S. Commerce Department Inspector General Todd Zinser, had predated her tenure. But she added, "I own them, and I intend to fix them."

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