The critical details of this dramatic new system of regulating fishermen will actually be determined after we buy the plan and take it for a test drive.
A federal government fisheries panel is meeting in Portland, Maine. That panel, the New England Fisheries Management Council, will vote on what is either the most creative and innovative change in how our groundfish are managed, or, perhaps, the next in a long line of blunders in government oversight which will change the shape of ports like ours forever.
Regrettably, although the advocates of the new plan, known as "Amendment 16," convey the confidence of a Red Sox fan in April, the critical details of this dramatic new system of regulating fishermen will actually be determined after we buy the plan and take it for a test drive. That, in my view, is a policy model that leaves a lot of unknowns for what is such an important environmental and economic issue for New England.