Blistering Editorial from Gloucester Daily Times
The Gloucester Times is running a blistering editorial on their front page taking NMFS to task for waging “out and out war” against the fishery. The NMFS has been rebuffed in its most recent efforts to shut down New England’s fisheries in much the same manner as they need to be rebuffed in their ongoing efforts to shut down the Gulf of Mexico fisheries.
To briefly recap: A federal judge has recently handed down a couple of decisions that go against the NMFS draconian regulatory policies. When told by U.S. District Court Judge Edward Harrington that their current plan wouldn’t cut it and they needed to be considering options that would cause less economic hardship on the fishery, the NMFS attempted to shut down the fishery by suspending a leased days at sea program. When the same judge told them, no, that won’t do either. Let the boats fish and come up with a whole new plan that addresses the full intent of the Magnuson Stevens Fishery Conservation Act which is very much intended to protect the fishery as well as the fish. When the NMFS appealed, he ruled against them once more.
The NMFS reaction to all this? Attempt to shut down the marketplace.
They have had no luck going after the fishermen, so they are now trying to shut down the auction where the majority of the Glouster fleet sells their fish. They served papers claiming vague and often unprovable violations going back at least 4 years with a total fine of of $335,200 and an enforced shut down for 120 days. The process is ridiculous, the person being served the fine is considered guilty unless he appeals and wins, the fine is arbitrarily set by the same rogue police agency that issues the violations. The terms of the shut-down are arbitrarily set by the same agency. The path of appeal is directly to the same agency. The whole thing is heavy-handed and smacks of a Federal Agency that is mired in the politics of the past administration and simply believes it is above the law.
The Gloucester Daily Times calls for an outright dismantling of the NMFS. It seems like that is what is going to have to happen before the American Commercial Fishing Industry can stop hunkering down in a bunker while the mortar shells that the NMFS keeps lobbing destroy the industry methodically and surely.
