The figures used by the nation’s administrator of fisheries to dramatize the reduced economic harm to the New England fishing industry from a revised Interim Rule were not wrong. But as one industry group official put it, the approach "masks" the rule’s true impact.
Based on figures in the rule itself — a legal documentof 127 pages that was published in the Federal Register — National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration chief Jane Lubchenco wascorrect when she announced that the regulatory scheme to be used starting May 1 for one year would ease — from 20 percent to 9.4 percent— the loss of revenue to the groundfishing industry of the six New England states, New York and New Jersey.