To the editor:
I believe all the invective aimed at Jane Lubchenco and the National Marine Fisheries service is misdirected. Canada shut its cod fishery down in 1992 and the cod have still not made a comeback.
The draggers and gillnetters have just about killed the cod off the Massachusetts coast and on Georges.
Who are the fishermen going to blame when all the cod are gone? Lubchenco is trying to save a species. The smart thing for NMFS to do would be to cut the fleet down to a quarter of its present size. Who is Sen. Brown's Bete Noir going to be several years from now, when there's nothing left to catch?
The handwriting is on the wall, but neither Sen. Brown nor his fishing constituents seem able to read.
When Canada shut the fishery down, more than 40,000 people were out of work. The New England fishery is headed in the same direction.
tony austin
Morehead City, N.C.
