Ocean Resource Privatization
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The New England groundfish debacle (Part III): who or what is at fault? Nils E. Stolpe/FishNet
NILS STOLPE: The New England groundfish debacle (Part IV): Is cutting back harvest really the answer?
While it’s a fact that’s hardly ever acknowledged, the assumption in fisheries management is that if the population of a stock of fish isn’t at some arbitrary level, it’s because of too much fishing. Hence the term “overfished.” Hence the mandated knee jerk reaction of the fisheries managers to not enough fish; cut back on fishing. What of other factors? They don’t count. It’s all about fishing, because fishing is all that the managers can control; it’s their Maslow’s Hammer. When it comes to the oceans it seems as if it’s about all that the industry connected mega-foundations that support the anti-fishing ENGOs with hundreds of millions of dollars a year in “donations” are interested in controlling. Read the article here
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Recent Posts
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North Atlantic Right Whale: Extinction Is Looming. Everyone’s Fighting.
This May, new rules created for the lobster industry by the National Marine Fisheries Service will become official policy for boats operating in right whale territory. Read More » -
Dad, son fined $11,000 for illegal hauls – Pair sold three catches of halibut that they didn’t report
BRIDGEWATER — A father and son have been fined more than $11,000 for illegally landing fish valued at more than $6,000 and selling it to a Read More » -
“Prince of Whales” threatens suit to end Maine lobster licensing
Max Strahan is threatening to go to court. Again. Known by many in the conservation community, on Thursday, Oct. 1, Strahan filed a 60-day notice of Read More » -
Cape Breton lobster fishermen struggle – ‘This is the first year I had to tell my fishermen I couldn’t move their product,’
There is a lack of demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, the price for lobster has dropped to $4.25 a pound. In some Read More » -
Fans still flock as end of 11th ‘Wicked Tuna’ season nears
“Wicked Tuna,” based in Gloucester, continues to capture the hearts and imaginations of viewers, who continue to flock to America’s oldest seaport to catch a glimpse Read More » -
Southeast Alaska communities set to join opposition to lawsuit that threatens king salmon fishery
Ketchikan, Wrangell and Petersburg are set to join a growing chorus of Alaska voices highlighting the impact the suit could have on the region’s fishing fleet. Read More » -
Massachusetts lobstermen drop lawsuit against California aquarium that told people to stop eating lobster
The Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association has ended its fight against a California aquarium that says people shouldn’t buy and eat lobster because of the risks the fishery poses on the Read More » -
Southern California Fisheries Closure Lifted – Fishing to reopen following oil spill off Huntington Beach coast
At noon Tuesday, Nov. 30, waters along a 45-mile stretch of coastline that were closed to fishing because of last month’s oil spill off Huntington Beach, Read More » -
$1,000 REWARD! Vandalism that occurred on the Atchafalaya Delta Wildlife Management Area
An LDWF bulldozer and utility vehicle (UTV) were first noticed missing on July 24 on the Big Island portion of Atchafalaya Delta WMA. The bulldozer was buried Read More » -
Oregon boat captain accused of drunken assault on woman at sea
An Oregon man accused of assaulting a woman on a commercial fishing ship he was operating while intoxicated was arrested after a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter Read More » -
Sacramento River King Salmon hold on, but drought, heat may take toll next year
The California drought and a strange warming trend in the ocean have not yet killed off the Sacramento River’s king salmon, which are swimming off the Read More » -
Muskegon County man catches 600-pound tuna during Massachusetts vacation
In West Michigan, landing a 30-pound salmon is cause for serious bragging rights, but Norton Shores resident Tom Kresnak has a bigger fish story than that. Read More » -
Alaska Board of Fisheries issues 2019-2020 proposal book
Proposals to be considered by the Alaska Board of Fisheries during its 2019-2020 meeting cycle are now available for download,,, The 276 proposals up for review Read More » -
How will battery of new regulations affect Southern New England’s lobster fishermen?
Southern New England’s fading lobster fishery will be subject to a battery of new regulations, possibly closed fishing areas and stricter size standards, to try to Read More » -
The Fisheries Broadcast with Jamie Baker
Thu., 26 – Are rebounding cod numbers really behind the decline in crab? Mon., 30 – Live at the 2013 World Seafood Congress in St. John’s Read More » -
Search called off for missing crew member of capsized Belgian-registered fishing boat Assanat Z-582
The Coastguard has called off a search for a crew member missing at sea after a fishing boat (identified here through FiskerForum.com)capsized off the Kent coast. Read More » -
2015 a half-billion dollar lobsterpalooza for Maine fishermen
The Department of Marine Resources released its preliminary 2015 commercial fisheries landings Thursday night and the news was astonishing. According to DMR, the value of Maine’s Read More » -
Celebrating 20 Years In The Food Delivery Industry, Vital Choice Wild Seafood & Organics. How It All Began
“Her name was Helen. She really wanted some wild salmon,” With 20 years in business Vital Choice Wild Seafood & Organics explores how it began with a request Read More » -
Coast Guard pulls two fishermen from water, searching for two others in Pamlico Sound, North Carolina
The Coast Guard pulled two mariners from the water after their vessel sank on Tuesday night, and is currently searching for the other two crewmembers in Read More » -
Do as We Say, Not as We Do! – Center for Coastal Studies, 100, well, Maybe 99 endangered right whales feeding off Cape Cod
The Provincetown-based nonprofit group reported Friday that about 100 whales are concentrated near the western shore of Cape Cod Bay and near the entrance to the Read More » -
Simrad New Technology Improves Accuracy and Reliability for Fishery Surveys
Simrad, a Kongsberg Maritime AS brand and developer of hydro acoustic technology for commercial fishing and scientific vessels has released a significant update for its ME70 Scientific Multibeam Read More » -
Chinook salmon season to open May 1 for Bay Area commercial fishermen
HALF MOON BAY — Fishery managers have circled May 1 as the opening date for what promises to be the second consecutive good season for Bay Read More » -
Commercial fishermen seek to halt recreational angling?
You think the differences between commercial fishing groups and recreational anglers has been heated in the past? Well … consider this just in from the “you Read More » -
The last days of the F/V Newfie Pride
There were many nights he didn’t sleep. The numbers and scenarios turned over and over in his mind, making rest impossible. “I’d get up two, three Read More » -
A Dragger and Her Captain, Soon to Part Ways
Captain Greg Mayhew recently sold the ship’s groundfish permit — the last on the Vineyard — to The Nature Conservancy, which has partnered with the Martha’s Read More »
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Topmost problem = the USA does not OWN the fish, it has Stewardship rights and responsibilities, which are to be met by the regulatory frameworks. The nation does not own the fish, and has no right to give it away as property rights.
Proponents of Catch Shares are not free market advocates. They are advocates of using public relations language to call the ownership system “market-based solutions.” That is a cooked up economic mishmash. The doublespeak of saying Catch Shares offer exclusive access quickly belies the fact that this is anything but free market.
CSs do not bring economic efficiency – as the definition of EE is consumer oriented and quality and product form determined, as to which combination of end products from what quality of limited quantity inputs (bundle of resources – total allowable catch) will bring the best combination of economic wealth and needs satisfactions. What EDF really means and CSs really go for is productive efficiency or cost cutting, which means job cutting, less investment in fishing vessels, and consolidation.
The CSs in Alaska are said to go to “harvesters” – but that should mean those who harvest, those who fish – i.e. the active participants, mainly captains and crewmen, not non-participants. CSs were sold on “an overcapitalized industry” but in truth the system of Asset Commodification and the Privatization into Quota Shares attracted billions of dollars of new capital, overcapitalizing a once privileged-based public fishery, in favor of the new carpetbagging bankster and private equity/hedge fund investor who never brought a single pound of fish across the rail.
The Magnuson-Stevens Act etc. – our nations Fishery Laws – have no definitions for “fishermen”, “harvesters”, etc., let alone for something euphemistically called “catch shares”. It is NOT sharing, it is anti-free market, restraint of trade, government sponsored monopolization – akin to socialist stronghold theories of industrial planning and control. Prices are no longer determined at arm’s length. Suppliers – fishermen – lose their bargaining power for ex-vessel prices when the buyers (like Japan’s, Korea’s and other transnational firms) hold “processor quotas” that fishermen quotas must match up to.
Reauthorization of MSA should foremost concentrate on good definitions. Regional fishery management councils should be made by the Secretary of Commerce and Congress to follow the Due Process of using Lay Share laws, complying with those statutes, first – so captains and crews maintain their historical shares.
But, top line and bottom line – the USA does not OWN the fish!! and if we do, it is a public resources. We cannot give away what we do not own. Shades of when the British tried to industrialize and privatize salt in India and met Ghandi’s satyagraha fight for the rights of the people to the commons’ wealth of resources.
Worst of all is Alaska’s fisheries which serve foreign interests over domestic ones, violate World Trade Agreement and other treaty rights, by allowing Japan-based and Korea-based etc. MNEs (multinational enterprises) to lie and cheat about the export values, pay little to no USA taxes, product launder the profits offshore, even free from foreign taxes usually. This is an Economic Treason, and resource exploitation warfare against the USA – and that is where the legal battle and Congressional powers must work to eliminate these illicit practices and the CS regimes.
Congress (and Alaska’s chief legislators and governor) knows all about the ABUSIVE TRANSFER PRICING and the global tax evasion crimes, and must begin to stop these illicit schemes in fisheries, timber and other resources. Alaska waters have already seen an estimated $50 billion loss since the passage of the FCMA in 1976. For other regions of the nation to follow the quota regime privatization is tragically wrong, too.
Groundswell Fishery Movement – Stephen Taufen
catch shares in the northeast are the biggest ripoff that ever came down the pike! after the council destroyed the industry by dividing up your catch from 1996-2006,then divide by 10 left us reeling in. one of those years codfish limits were 35pounds! per day. then reduce what ever scraps you got by 78%(cod). now you can catch cod ,if you can afford $2 per# .to lease it tru your sector that charges a fee per landed # a fee to the coalition too. after expences who in the hell would go fishing??? as i keep saying,our new warm&fuzzy transparent administration must love us poor fishermen,because he keeps making them.over n out