They're irate at the federal government for requiring that they outfit their vessels operating in the Gulf of Mexico with satellite-powered monitoring systems.

But commercial fishermen caught in the Department of Commerce's expanding regulatory net would do well to acknowledge its benefits. The monitoring systems will allow officials to better police off-limits waters compromised by renegade anglers. And better protecting those waters should help restore fragile ecosystems.

The monitoring systems' cost may pinch some small-time operators — a pressure officials may need to relieve. But the more they keep poachers from their targets, the more the monitoring will help replenish fish populations. That could mean access and catches later for the very fishermen now casting blame.

— The Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel