Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker says he views the federal government's new regulatory system for groundfish as a "borderline tragedy" to the industry, and one that is based on sketchy science. At a campaign "Town Hall meeting" stop at the Gloucester House Saturday morning, he wondered why Gov. Deval Patrick, who is running for a second term, has not joined the legal challenge mounted by fishing interests and the cities of Gloucester and New Bedford. "The federal government is putting the screws to the fishing industry in ways that will over time decimate it," Baker told a morning gathering of about two dozen people, including the commercial fisherman Joe Orlando and Christine Sherman, wife of commercial fisherman Russell Sherman. Baker fit the struggles of the fishing industry into his "Had enough?" campaign stump speech, which identifies excessive taxation, overregulation and business costs as the three anchors dragging the state's economy behind the region's and nation's. He criticized the current regulatory policy as so "unpredictable and unreliable." Read the complete Gloucester Times story
