A few years back, when the feds advised Joe Orlando to increase his number of fishing permits, he invested some $400,000, continuing to follow all the rules and expecting to see the industry bounce back as promised.

He still signs checks to pay off those permits — permits he says are now all but worthless since the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration sliced quotas and landing limits by up to 78 percent this spring.

Now, Orlando, seeing no way out of the financial ruin that has overtaken the industry here, has joined countless other Gloucester fishermen in parking his 65-foot boat on the selling block.

"We're done," Orlando said Tuesday. "I still owe for these permits and now I've got nothing left to fish. We've been under NOAA's rebuilding plan for the last 10 years, and now there's no one accountable for it."

Read the full story at Gloucester Times>>