It's good to hear that Mayor Carolyn Kirk and her New Bedford counterpart, Scott Lang, have filed notice to appeal a June 30, Boston-based federal court ruling regarding the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's fishing regulations.
Yet, Mayors Kirk and Lang, the other 28 fishing-related plaintiffs in this federal suit and our federal lawmakers should also heed the sentiments of Gloucester fisheries attorney Stephen Ouellette. He suggested in the wake of Zobel's June 30 ruling that legislation, not the courts, may be the primary route to slowing Lubchenco's relentless push for catch shares, even in defiance of congressional action.
Catch shares have devastated many of the smaller fishing operations in this region, putting fishermen out of business. Its aim seems to be to centralize the fishing industry, giving the lion's share of the catch to large commercial operations. It is anathema to New England's fishing traditions, and it's costing many independent middle-class workers their jobs.
Lubchenco's brazen lack of accountability showed as much as ever last week when her one-time finalist for the job of heading the National Marine Fisheries Service, former Alaska fisherman Arne Fuglvog, was socked with a $150,000 fine and a 10-month prison sentence for misreporting landings and cheating on that state's catch-share system.
Yet, of the $150,000 poor Fuglvog has to cough up, $100,000 of it is being steered to the quasi-public National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
Read the complete opinion piece from The Daily News