There actually seemed to be some hope in and around the fishing industry last week going into a meeting between U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and a caucus of more than a dozen congressional lawmakers.
There was hope that, in agreeing to the meeting, Locke might have seen the urgency the lawmakers raised in seeking emergency relief from the absurdly low New England catch limits put in place by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and its National Marine Fisheries Service.
There was a sense this Cabinet secretary might raise the limits which, combined with the NOAA chief Jane Lubchenco's tunnel-visioned rush into a new management system, seems certain to doom scores of small fishing boat businesses and waterfront jobs in Gloucester, New Bedford and elsewhere.
Read the complete editorial at The Gloucester Daily Times.