Gov. Deval Patrick yesterday agreed to take up the cause of the fishing industry and lead a science-based political insurgency right up to the White House to rewrite federal fishery policies that have diminished the size of the fleet in the name of conservation.
Patrick crafted a working plan based on scientific research and the special access he has to President Barack Obama at the end of an impromptu brainstorming session with about 100 of the industry’s leading stakeholders — as well as his own governmental fishing brain trust — in a harborfront restaurant following a tour of what’s left of the state’s once iconic fleet of big boats that venture out on weeklong trips into the open ocean.
Patrick set tight deadlines — a 30-day window for the research proposal from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s School of Marine Science and Technology — and made urgent the demand for a funding and strategic game plan.