BOSTON – The swell of the ocean, the sturdiness of his boat and the size of the catch are among the traditional concerns of a New England fisherman. Public relations and building political clout were jobs for people who didn’t work on the water.

But pending new restrictions fishermen say will bury them changed the job description.

In recent months, the famously fractious fishing industry has displayed a unity that hasn’t been seen in years, rallying at ports up and down the coast, increasing pressure on legislators and joining advocacy groups en masse.

Lobbyists make their case in Washington, while a public relations firm preaches the importance of preserving the region’s fishing communities.

The concerted efforts by an industry famous for fierce individualism was desperately needed, said Gloucester fisherman Vito Giacalone. “We fell asleep at the wheel,” he said.

“The attitude of fishermen before was, ‘I’m going fishing, someone else will take care of it,”‘ said Rodney Avila, a New Bedford fishing boat owner.

Fishermen are simply trying to match the tactics of regulators and environmentalists, who fishermen feel portray them as pillagers of the oceans, said Ann-Margaret Ferrante, an attorney for the Gloucester-based Northeast Seafood Coalition.

“There was nobody to counter that,” she said.

Eric Bilsky, an attorney for the environmental group Oceana, said fishermen wrongly cast themselves as victims of negative publicity. He said the industry has long had the dominant voice in devising rules, and that has forced environmentalists to sue to be heard.

For instance, he said, the New England Fishery Management Council, which advises federal regulators on fishery rules, has just one environmentalist on the board, but several representatives of various sectors of the fishing industry.

“They’ve never been the little guy without the voice,” he said.

It’s been 13 months since U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler ruled in favor of environmental groups who sued the government, arguing federal regulators weren’t doing enough to stop overfishing of groundfish stocks, such as cod and flounder. The judge ordered the government to devise tough new rules.

Before the December 2001 ruling, fishermen had protested a decade of ever-tightening restrictions, but often with a fragmented voice.

Fishermen say the industry still clung to rivalries between regions, large boats and small boats, and gear types – such as draggers and fixed gear boats – that sometimes get in each other’s way.

“The individual was never thinking big picture,” Giacalone said.

Even after the lawsuit, the industry couldn’t find unanimity, with the Northeast Seafood Coalition rejecting rules proposed to Kessler by other fishing groups this spring, saying they hit Gloucester particularly hard.

But the fishermen were galvanized when Kessler issued tougher restrictions than anyone anticipated – cutting some fishermen’s fishing days to nothing – and they held public rallies from Portland, Maine, to Point Judith, R.I.

The industry further united in September when federal regulators announced that gear on a boat that helps count fish populations was improperly set, igniting outrage and fueling long-held suspicions that the science behind reports of plummeting fish stocks was flawed.

“There wasn’t a fisherman on the planet who didn’t believe there was a serious error,” said Priscilla Brooks of the Conservation Law Foundation, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit brought by the environmental groups.

Individual fishermen stay updated on a Web site set up to track developments by Portland boat owner Barbara Stevenson. Dave Lackey, a spokesman for U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Oceans and Fisheries, said rank-and-file fishermen are also actively seeking out Snowe, instead of relying on others to speak for them.