A trio of representatives from the New England Fishery Management Council presided over a hearing at the Seaport Inn that drew a crowd of about 150, but after a routine introduction, the tone turned hostile.
After state Rep. William Straus, D-Mattapoisett, politely broached the possibility of a "doing nothing" option rather than pursing a system that would "pick winners and losers" without doing anything for the fishery, New Bedford Mayor Scott W. Lang took off the gloves.
"I think we need to throw out the baby with the bathwater, and along with that the washcloth, the soap and the rubber ducky," he said to the three representatives of the council.
He decried the proposed Amendment 15 regulations as "social engineering," backed by no studies, that will deliberately kill off a way of life in fishing communities all along the seaboard.
And he told the representatives that the system "is broken on your end, not ours."
Following a lengthy Powerpoint presentation about the outlines of the 360-page amendment, Lang and others zeroed in on two elements: the government's estimate of the job losses and the fleet shrinkage, and the consolidation of the fleet toward newer, bigger, more efficient boats.
Those elements are at the heart of NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco's stated desire to shrink the fishing fleet nationwide through a system called "sector management" and "catch shares."