In 2009, we here at the Times created a full-fledged "fishing" beat, with staff writer Richard Gaines as its primary reporter.
We were responding to several stories we were covering almost daily, including the tragic sinking of the fishing vessel Patriot and the lingering questions about the delayed response of the Coast Guard, efforts by the newly installed chief of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to impose a new regulatory scheme on the fishing industry and a stepped-up federal enforcement campaign targeting local fishermen.
Those and other stories made us want to learn more about the factors behind what even the government concedes is a "dysfunctional" relationship between the fishing industry and federal fishing regulators. The more we dug — and continue to dig today — the more we learned.
We learned, through documents and extensive sources, of a long-running, high-powered push by major environmental lobbying groups to not only influence federal policy but also to directly shape that policy by gaining a political stronghold within the government itself.
Read all about the series from the Gloucester Daily Times.