For months, the Gloucester fishing community and industry leaders across New England and the nation have begged federal regulators to delay the implementation of a new regulatory structure that, by many counts, could throw the regional industry into chaos and drive many independent boat owners out of business.
Now, one of the biggest environmental lobbies in the nation is joining them — sort of.
This doesn’t mean that the Pew Environment Group is suddenly in sync with area fishing interests. The $5 billion philanthropy still believes in draconian restrictions on fishing, in the name of preserving the resource and fighting the effects of alleged and disputed "overfishing." The Big Green still supports "catch-shares," a system of fisheries management that divides the resource into saleable commodities, for the groundfishing industry in New England, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and its National Marine Fisheries Service are moving toward implementing the system next year.
But the words from Lee Crockett, director of Pew’s federal fisheries policy — outlined during a nationwide teleconference Tuesday and reported in yesterday’s Times — took many by surprise. That’s because Crockett urged the Obama administration — and that means NOAA chief and former Pew Fellow Jane Lubchenco — to "go slow" on catch shares, and not to make it "the default management system."