I hope everyone understands that with all the injustice that happened with the regulators in the fishing industry that there is one man, ONE SINGLE MAN who is most responsible for exposing it all and getting the wheels turning to see that things change.

That man is Richard Gaines at The Gloucester Daily Times.  For years  complex rules were made and the regulatory scheme changed so often and without warning that even the most involved person in the fishing industry would be forgiven for giving up trying to understand it.  This is the reason that the regulatory departments within the government basically got away with anything, because no reporter would bother to try to figure out the moving target.

Ray Lamont, editor at the GDT in his wisdom, unleashed the journalistic beast that is Richard Gaines.  Armed with the protection of the First Amendment Richard threw himself headlong into this world and immersed himself trying to figure out just what the hell was going on.  As he dug it became apparent that  fisheries management was completely out of control.

He exposed it and exposed it and exposed it daily and it was through his investigative journalism that people began to understand just how fucked up it all was.  This is the reason that the politicians got involved because they could no longer sit on the sidelines,the abuse had become apparent after Richard had broken it down for all to see in the pages of the Gloucester Daily Times. Before Richard took on the task, there was literally NO ONE who brought all the complexities to the masses.

Richard Gaines deserves the highest journalistic awards this country has to offer.