While a regional fishermen's protest progressed peacefully Friday morning outside the front door of the headquarters for federal fishery managers in Blackburn Industrial Park, congenial, sympathetic Gloucester police officers patrolled the private area to control parking and traffic.

But behind them, hidden from casual view, was a coalition of state and federal police forces mobilized in the weeks since the protest demonstration was announced by Amanda Odlin, a Scarborough, Maine, commercial fishing boat co-owner and suburban karate mom, to deal with a worst-case scenario — a demonstration turned violent.

There were no arrests or untoward incidents in what was the largest fishing protest in memory, drawing fishermen from distant ports to the hub of the Gulf of Maine.

Police estimated 250 people were at the site, though organizers insisted there were at least 350.

Even the "Horribles"-like float portraying the lynching of three fishermen by federal fisheries administrator Jane Lubchenco, which served as a backdrop for the speeches, generally elicited more chuckles than clenched fists. The speeches themselves meandered over more than two hours and focused on new federal policies to privatize the fishery with an eye toward culling the size of the fleet and aligning investor interests with conservation incentives.

There was nary a tense moment in the anger forged by the planned transformation of the fishery into a system of Individual Transferrable Quotas, or catch shares, just as more than 30 years of conservation policy is paying off in the form of a stronger biomass.

Still, just in case, officers of the Federal Protective Service within the Department of Homeland Security were deployed in and around the year-old, four-story, $25 million edifice from which Patricia Kurkul, the regional director of the National Marine Fisheries Service, and roughly 200 bureaucrats manage fishing in federal waters from the Canadian border through the Carolinas.

In addition, acting on the request of the Gloucester police, the state police deployed from the Danvers barracks a sizeable force stationed at the Fuller School. State police spokesman David Mahan said seven vehicles were at the ready. These included a canine cruiser, three patrol cars and three community action team cruisers.

It is not clear on what authority the state police remained in reserve on the property of the Fuller School.

"When I came in in the morning (Friday)," said Brian Tarr, assistant superintendent of operations and central services, "a (state police) lieutenant approached me and said they were going to use the parking lot."

At the NMFS building, built at the end of the sole access road through the most recent phase of development of the industrial park, one source with knowledge of local, state and federal law enforcement activities reported seven vehicles attached to federal agencies in the parking lot to the side of the NMFS Building beyond the area authorized for the protest demonstration.

A helicopter of uncertain markings flew over too, the source said.

The Times was unable to confirm anecdotal reports that, inside the building were officers of the Federal Protective Services, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, in riot gear.

But Matt Chandler, a spokesman for Homeland Security, confirmed the "presence" of Federal Protective Services' officers.

"They were requested by (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) to protect occupants of the building," said Chandler.

One official source involved in the preparations attributed the decision to mobilize such a large force to memories of a fishermen's protest demonstration in Nova Scotia in 1996 that turned violent. There, hook fishermen were trying to stop federal policies that, according to "One More Dead Fish," a documentary film by Stefan Forbes, were over-allocating quota to industrial interests and squeezing the mom-and pop fishermen out of business.

Seven federal buildings in Nova Scotia were occupied for 25 days before the government agreed to talks with the handliners.

The moving force in the pre-demonstration planning was the NOAA's Office of Law Enforcement which, since the summer has been the center of attention of an investigation by the Inspector General of the Department of Commerce into vindicative actions against the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction and boats that sell through that hub of the Massachusetts fishing industry.

"NOAA's Office of Law Enforcement, when they heard about the planned rally from local police, informed Federal Protected Services which is standard operating procedure when events like this are planned at any federal building," said NOAA/NMFS spokeswoman Maggie Mooney-Seus.

"Protective Services is responsible for security inside federal buildings," Mooney-Seus said. "(The) role of Gloucester Police is outside of the building — to make sure that the road remains open and to grant organizers the appropriate permits as this rally took place on private property.

"NOAA did not dictate the security level," she said, "we merely followed the lead of these enforcement authorities."

Odlin said she had called Gloucester Police about a week before the demonstration and worked out details — such as a request from the police and from Odlin that protesters not bring wooden handles for the homemade signs and similar potential weapons.

"We told them what we were doing, they were very helpful," Odlin said. After the demonstration ended — and while she was waiting for husband Chris Odlin, she said — "I went up to four or five policemen and thanked them."

"They told me they were pretty much on our side," she added.

In signs and placards as well as speeches, a theme of the demonstration was the influence of the Pew Environment Group and the Environmental Defense Fund on federal fisheries policy under the Obama administration and Lubchenco, the feds' new administrator for fisheries, a former Pew Fellow and former EDF vice chairman.

It was a photo of her face that was attached to the executioner in the float that featured the hanging of three fishermen. The effort had the bite of floats in the "Fishtown Horribles" parade that spoofs issues on each July 3.

Both environmental non-profits have been promoting catch shares while Pew has been financing university research that seeks to dramatize the decline of biodiversity in the oceans ecosystems.

The articles produced dramatic images — prediction that the oceans would be virtually dead by 2048, ruled by jellyfish, without radical action. But scientists unconnected to Pew funding have debunked the predictions; more than one poster at the demonstration was decorated with drawings of jellyfish.

The Pew Environment Group yesterday announced a noon teleconference today to unveil a white paper on catch shares, the policy that helped spark the protest last Friday.

Richard Gaines can be reached at rgaines@gloucestertimes.com