GLOUCESTER, MA (March 17, 2009) – Times readers ought to thank Sam Frontiero and Russell A. Sherman for their willingness to go public with their concerns about the many problems facing Gloucester fishermen and the entire local seafood industry.
The two men’s letters to the editor appeared in the paper’s March 12 edition, Frontiero’s under the headline, "Case against the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction shows NMFS ‘vindictiveness,’" Sherman’s, "Thanks for marine lessons in democracy."
Sherman and Frontiero probably know as much about commercial fishing as anybody in the country. But what struck me about both letters was the two men’s sincerity in voicing their frustration over the complex, burdensome, and increasingly punitive regulations and enforcement policies of a government agency that appears to view local fishermen as second-class citizens, if not worse — as criminals whose every movement at sea must be carefully governed and monitored.
Read the Gloucester Daily Times story in full