Wednesday night’s candlelight vigil and demonstration against the shameful regulatory and enforcement squeeze on a fishing industry already struggling for survival was an invigorating show of passion and solidarity.
While most of the more than 300 people who packed City Hall and then walked to the Fisherman’s Memorial were local residents, others came from New Hampshire, Maine and Rhode Island. That was fitting; it is, after all, not just a Gloucester issue, even though the city and its fishing community have become a flashpoint for these issues. It is the future of the entire New England fishery, and, by extension, the nation’s fishing industry at stake.
But while Wednesday’s rally came during a potential industry crossroads — with Department of Commerce Inspector General’s investigators in town probing the heavy-handed crackdown actions used by federal enforcers against fishermen and the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction — the emotional gathering should be seen as just a new beginning in this battle, not a culmination of the effort to date.
Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.