If the Obama administration truly recognizes the need to spur growth through the private sector and create more employment, how can this president and his administration actively push for a national fisheries policy committed to killing waterfront jobs and driving small independent boat owners right out of business — and right out of a way of life that's been a core part of Gloucester and other communities for generations.
As Obama talked of growing jobs in other fields, and the nation's financial investments and commitments, the policies of his own Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, and NOAA chief Jane Lubchenco seemed more and more absurd.
Fishermen, of course, don't need the government to throw them money to grow jobs. They only want to be able to earn a living as they have in the past — especially now, considering the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's retired top scientist, Steve Murawski, noted earlier this month that fishermen's efforts have brought an end to "overfishing" off America's three coasts.
Fishermen, in fact, wouldn't be seeking any "emergency aid" at all if their own federal government — using documented bad science and obscene, excessive law enforcement tactics confirmed by the Commerce Department's own Inspector General — hadn't wrongly forced them to the brink of financial disaster with overly tight catch limits and a "catch share" management system that drives more control of the industry away from the small independents and into larger corporate hands.
Read the complete editorial from The Gloucester Times.