Fishing fight lands national media attention

By Steve Urbon
surbon@s-t.com
January 21, 2011 12:00 AM

NEW BEDFORD — Major national media outlets have taken a serious interest in the upheaval in the fishing industry now that U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., took a swipe at the Obama administration for misleading him into thinking that help was on the way.

The high-profile "counter-intimidation," as Frank put it, drew high-profile, right-wing opinion maker Rush Limbaugh. He jumped in on his syndicated radio broadcast, telling Frank that the administration's offer of false hope is typical behavior.

"Who are we talking about here? We are talking about the (Obama) regime. And Barney, the regime will screw you just like they'll screw anybody else. It doesn't matter if you're all Democrats, but learn it, love it, live it. Barney has got to learn that he lives in the land of Obama-ville, where the leader lies about everything. I know it's about the animals and the environment and all kinds of things."

Limbaugh briefly explained what is happening with catch shares, then went on, partly by reading newspaper accounts. "While smaller boats claim it will drive them out of business, the new catch share system is viewed by some as a more equitable way to manage stocks and prevent overfishing. Yeah, socialism, make everything equally miserable. Equally undersupplied. Equally woeful. And by all means don't let the market have anything to say about this. No, the regime and Gary Locke. So Obama is killing another industry," Limbaugh said, according to a transcript on the website SavingSeafood.org.

Mayor Scott W. Lang told The Standard-Times he has spoken to several major national news organizations in the past three days. In Washington, D.C., this week for the national mayors' conference, Lang spent time in a closed-door Capitol Hill meeting with Frank and U.S. Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C.

Lang would not divulge whether news organizations attended the meeting. But he said: "We're getting attention from all the different media outlets. We're starting to get some real attention. This is not us pitching it. These people are showing interest.

"I feel like we're gaining traction," Lang said. "But I also think that nothing substitutes for a federal judge looking over their shoulders. And we want (the Commerce Department's inspector general) taking this on full steam."

Commerce Secretary Gary Locke has appointed a "special master," a retired federal judge, to examine the history of fisheries prosecutions in the Northeast.

Meanwhile, the Conservation Law Foundation has filed a response to the amicus brief (friend of the court) filed by Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley on behalf of New Bedford in its lawsuit against Locke over catch shares and sector management. The CLF has joined the suit on the side of the government.

Written by CLF senior attorney Peter Shelley, the response to Coakley's brief avoided discussing substance but rather focused on procedure. The amicus is more than twice as lengthy as is typically allowed in such cases, said CLF. It is also many months late, having been filed in January on a case originally brought to the court in May of last year.

CLF said the amicus attempts to broaden the scope of the complaint and bring in documents published after the suit was filed, another breach of protocol. And it points out that the brief, coming as it does from the state government, puts the state in the odd position of opposing a fisheries management plan that its representative on the New England Fisheries Management Council had voted to accept.