In Gloucester and other New England fishing ports, Locke may be always remembered as the Commerce chameleon who, prior to last fall's elections, offered hope that he'd seriously consider declaring a government-induced economic emergency…
… for cities such as Gloucester, New Bedford and others, due to tight federal catch limits based on outdated science, and the New England council's forced feeding of a catch share management scheme that's already driving small independent fishermen out of business.
Instead, he chose to uphold the hard-line status quo and the stand of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief Jane Lubchenco, despite data from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth showing extensive flaws in the data used by Lubchenco and her NOAA minions to put the tight clamps in place. He ignored the report by retired NOAA chief scientist Steve Murawski that there is indeed no more evidence of "overfishing." And he shot down the justified calls of Gov. Deval Patrick, Sens. John Kerry and Scott Brown, Congressmen Barney Frank and John Tierney, and others.
Read the complete editorial from The Gloucester Times.