To the editor:
Given the flap over last week's fishermen's letter regarding catch shares, it seems to me that we should really be having a serious discussion about the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Act.
Its fabricated, unrealistic goals and requirements, expectations and regulations are arbitrary, un-achievable, and in many cases unnecessary. Same goes for the Marine Mammals Protection Act, MPA.
Any engine that drives a vehicle that provides the opportunity for a single entity to "own" 39 percent of an entire stock (Georges Bank winter flounder, just one glaring example) is a runaway and desperately in need of a complete overhaul.
Replacing belts, hoses, pumps and filters won't fix the problem. The overcompensated armchair "mechanics" at NOAA, the councils, and even some of our own organizations, excel at protecting their own interests and paychecks, yet are remarkably reluctant to roll up their sleeves, get their hands greasy — not just their palms! — and rebuild the source of the problem.
Read the complete letter from The Gloucester Times.