Instead of considering a more gradual move, a technical committee recommended the five-year ban — at a time when the prospects for out-of-work lobstermen have to be the grimmest. Hey, when all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail.
The fact is the five-year moratorium was the sledgehammer solution to the problem of depleted lobster stocks in the waters that stretch from Cape Cod south all the way to North Carolina.
Regulators believe the lobster stock in that region, which accounts for only a small percentage of total lobster landings on the East Coast, is "critically depleted."
But even they acknowledge that in the waters in question, the lobsters are not being overfished. Environmental causes, including warmer water temperatures that may have prompted the stocks to migrate, may be to blame.
Read the complete editorial from the Boston Herald.