Free Republic

New England’s fishing activists, including a large contingent from Gloucester, headed to Washington, D.C. Wednesday, Feb. 24 to participate in the United We Fish rally. Armed with their reasons why the regulations placed on the fishing industry should be re-examined, the Gloucester activists packed their day with meetings, and delivered their message to the open ears of Washington lawmakers. Despite the cold temps and constant threat of rain and snow, a crowd estimated at 5,000 people attended the protest. “I was impressed with the rally,” said Jack Flaherty, a Gloucester fisherman who drove to D.C. with friends. “The biggest crowd...

Many of the big decisions that affect our fishing industry are made by people who are far away and have never set foot in Alaska. Catch share programs have become the preferred method for managing U.S. fisheries, and federal managers are offering incentives for regions to adopt the plan. "Business as usual with our traditional management tools is not accomplishing what we need," said Dr. Lubchenco, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration... Catch shares is a term usually applied to programs that divide up fish resources among historical participants, but it also encompasses fishing co-operatives, sector splits and...

An inspector general's report ripped NOAA for unfairly targeting the northeast fishermen. "I don't know if you know, it but we are in panic mode," said one local fisherman. An industry in peril. Fisherman told one of the highest ranking members of NOAA who is in charge of fishing regulations that the rules are killing them. "You're going to see a lot of guys go by the wayside," said a Gloucester fisherman. "It's a shame because we put a lot of sacrifice into this, so to see it all go away is going to be a shame." Dr. Jane Lubchenco...

"He said his office also received a call about it on the IG hot line the day the files were shredded but didn't process it until after the documents were gone."

"The White House for the first time Sunday somewhat acknowledged that people across the country received unsolicited e-mails last week on health care from the administration, suggesting the problem on third-party groups it claimed placed the recipients' names on the distribution list...." "If an individual received the e-mail because someone else or a group signed them up or forwarded the e-mail, we hope they were not too inconvenienced." http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/08/16/white-house-e-mail/