City officials and the state Legislature had the right idea back in 1956, when they created a Gloucester Fisheries Commission for "promotion, preservation, and protection of the Gloucester fishing industry."
Indeed, if such a panel had been in place over the last 10 years or so, perhaps Gloucester and other New England fishermen might have been sooner and more unified case to fight against the heavy-handed regulatory and enforcement tactics of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's law enforcement henchmen, whose treatment of fishermen and waterfront businesses like the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction have finally been documented by a federal Inspector General's report.
But while lawmakers on the local, state and federal level all now press for changes and a revisiting of many of those wrongful cases, it's also good to see Mayor Carolyn Kirk resurrect this city commission that somehow just faded into oblivion roughly a decade ago.
Read the complete editorial from The Gloucester Times.