June 4, 2013 — It’s important for the city, its fishermen and for the fishing industry in general for the mayor to dig in and take that stand, given that she had missed such events as when Sen. Elizabeth Warren met with the city’s fishermen in January, and that — just two weeks ago — she had talked openly of moving on to a loosely configured “bridge plan” aimed at “transitioning” fishing boats and aspects of the city’s waterfront for the future.
The news that Mayor Carolyn Kirk is emphatically backing the lawsuit filed by Attorney General Martha Coakley challenging the dire new fishery catch limits imposed May 1 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration might seem so obvious it’s barely worth noting.
Yet it’s important for the city, its fishermen and for the fishing industry in general for the mayor to dig in and take that stand, given that she had missed such events as when Sen. Elizabeth Warren met with the city’s fishermen in January, and that — just two weeks ago — she had talked openly of moving on to a loosely configured “bridge plan” aimed at “transitioning” fishing boats and aspects of the city’s waterfront for the future.
Many within the fishing industry understandably saw Kirk’s “bridge” and transition plan as surrendering to NOAA, and accepting the rogue agency’s job-killing quota cuts and lack of accountability in dealing with provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens Act.
That’s why her avowed, if belated, support for Coakley’s lawsuit, outlined in Saturday’s Times, looms as an important sign that the city’s leadership is on board with keeping up the fight to win back the working rights that fishermen should have now — not simply cave to federal bullying and accept NOAA’s wrongful ignorance of provisions of the Magnuson Act cited in Coakley’s lawsuit.
Read the full editorial at the Gloucester Daily Times