Unless I completely misread Jim Balsiger’s most recent My View column in the Gloucester Daily Times, "Can gear technique ideas solve fisheries challenge" (The Times, Friday, May 8), the assistant administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fishery division appeared to be strongly hinting at the previously unimaginable.
In that communique, addressed to the troubled fishing community of Gloucester, Balsiger seemed to be suggesting not only that New England fishermen might soon partner with the government in addressing the many problems associated with an industry long beset with internal contradictions and, more recently, increasingly burdensome regulations and restrictions imposed by external forces, but also that it’s fishermen, themselves, who may yet turn out to be the chief proponents and practitioners of successful fisheries management and conservation, a view no doubt regarded with great skepticism among many on both sides of the current fisheries dispute.
Indeed, given the acrimonious, decades-long dysfunctional relationship that has existed between New England’s commercial fishermen and both government regulatory and non-governmental environmental organizations, such a prospect might seem about as likely as the sudden reappearance of a Tyrannosaurus Rex on the crowded streets of today’s Manhattan.