When I met with Gloucester Mayor Carolyn Kirk earlier this year, she asked if it was possible for NOAA and the northeast fishing industry to ever find what she called "common ground."
Vito Giacalone, a representative of the fishing industry with the Northeast Seafood Coalition, answered the mayor’s question for me that day: Sector management was our common ground.
His view was reinforced on April 6 when NOAA released the interim groundfish rule, emphasizing how important it would be for the New England Fishery Management Council to put in place a robust, well-monitored, inclusive sector-management system by the start of the 2010 fishing season.