Date set for rockfish lawsuit hearing – To my Alaska Connection – ABOLISH CATCH SHARES NOW!
U.S. District Court judge Marsha Pechman has announced that a long-awaited hearing on the fate of the new Kodiak rockfish catch share plan will take place Nov. 19. Pechman, the chief judge in the district court for western Washington, will hear the case that pits Trident Seafoods, Ocean Beauty, Westward Seafoods and North Pacific Seafoods against the federal government. The processors contend that the rockfish program, which transitioned to full operation this year after a five-year pilot program, gives fishermen an unfair advantage in price negotiations. The key point of contention is a clause in the rockfish program that allows fishermen to freely shift among cooperatives that each deliver to a single processor. This allows fishermen to shift their deliveries to the processor offering the best price. Under the pilot program, fishermen were locked into a cooperative and could not shift.
Oh, go CRY ME A RIVER!!! Why is it the largest and most global fish corporations hate competition, want the ‘stability’ of restraints of trade, and hate to pay “the rational price” (natural prices) – while being given permanent access to public resources without paying a dime for them, just like the IFQ special interests in the Coops? We all know “why” … winners and losers, rich get richer … labor gets enslaved… (broken record, sing to choir, …yawn). I predict the judge will rule against the processors (and rightfully so) for their “un-American” filing. Next, we have to make sure Sen. Murkowski or some other crooked pol doesn’t slip new end-run language in an appropriations bill.
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