NEW BEDFORD — Ten members of a federal delegation to the city sat for dinner with a dozen city officials and fishing industry leaders Wednesday and got an earful about the ill effects of what was called the misguided, agenda-driven and needless overregulation of the fishing industry.
The group was mostly from the Commerce Department's Economic Development Administration but also included representatives of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Agriculture. The dinner at Davy's Locker in the South End was a broad introduction to the city they will see much more of today and Friday.
And for many it was a basic introduction to the kind of havoc an ill-considered regulation can have on a business and community.
Peter Moore of NORPEL gave the gathering an explanation of how unjustifiably low limits on haddock bycatch had shut down his herring and mackerel fishing and export business, and with it 120 jobs.
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