GLOUCESTER, MA (February 23, 2009) – [O]ur own not too warm and fuzzy fisheries service has ruled the scene with a 1970s-style Politburo iron grip on the fishing industry. But more than power, it is the manifest destiny attitude of its vision that transcends the pages of the paper.
"We know best," it seems to say. "Never trust what a fisherman says." "Any fishing anywhere will damage the stocks." "The fishery is still being overfished."
The Kurkul Circle, it seems, has totally drunk the Kool-Aid. The NMFS staff doesn’t get the fact that the public has turned against them on this story — not just the fishing public, but the fair-minded, reading-the-paper public. Even a 15-1 vote by the Fishery Management Council in September against tightening the strangling regulations of Framework 42 was waved away by the Service, because the one negative vote was the one cast by The Commissar — Kurkul.
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