When it comes to life and death, common sense must prevail.

And so we hope it will in the northern Maine town of Lubec, where a committee that manages a memorial for local fishermen who have died at sea agreed last week to reconsider rules that require a death to occur while “actively fishing” in order for it to be formally commemorated.

The committee’s review was sparked by uproar in response to the exclusion from the granite memorial of the names of two local scallopers, Chester and Aaron Barrett, a father and son who died in January when their scalloping boat sank off the coast of Trescott.

The Barretts were excluded from the coastal memorial on bafflingly technical grounds. They were moving their boat from mooring to mooring when it got into difficulty, in preparation for the next day’s fishing. This was not deemed to be “actively fishing.”

Fishing, like many other occupations, makes a wide range of daily demands on the people who earn their living doing it. The memorial committee was reportedly soliciting assistance with the definition from the Maine Department of Marine Resources last week, which is maddening nonsense.

“Half of the fishing community is in upheaval,” Annie Sokoloski, a former seafood dealer who helped organize last Monday’s ceremony, told our reporter. This should have come as no surprise.

The sooner the Lubec memorial can correct this for the Barretts, the better. It is immediately clear to most of us that their lives and their work deserves to be honored.

Editor’s note (July 27, 2025): This editorial was written and went to print prior to the publication of our news story of July 25 (“Lost Fishermen’s Memorial committee still considering father and son’s inclusion”).