"The only assistance the fishing industry needs in the Northeast is for Congress to demand, or legislate (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) to utilize common sense in interpretation and implementation of the Magnuson Act," Ouellette wrote amid a rolling online debate that has raged since the relief package was floated out on Aug. 5.
Amid pleas for the $100 million relief package, backed by U.S. Sen. John Kerry, are a growing number of hardline arguments by prestigious fishing industry backers — including Gloucester-based attorney Stephen Ouellette and academic scientist Brian Rothschild — that throwing money at the problem would merely allow politicians to escape their own complicity in the growing crisis and undercut efforts to forge policies aimed at the root of the industry's clash with the federal regulatory system.
"Fishermen didn't ask for handouts when stocks were overfished; they certainly don't want them now that stocks are rebuilt," wrote Ouellette, co-author of a suit challenging the constitutionality and legality of the management regimen that brought the catch shares system to New England on May 1.
Read the complete story from The Gloucester Times.