Tag Archives: United States Coast Guard Academy

Commercial fishermen plan flotilla for Trump’s graduation speech at Coast Guard Academy

A group of fishermen will greet President Trump and send congratulations to graduating cadets from a flotilla on the Thames River during the United States Coast Guard Academy commencement today. “Our message is ‘make commercial fishing great again’ and it’s a congratulatory effort to say thank you to the Coast Guard class of 2017,” said Joel Hovanesian, of Wakefield, who is a member of the Rhode Island Fishermen’s Alliance.  The purpose of the flotilla is also to raise the President’s awareness of regulatory issues in the fishing industry, especially since one of the platforms he ran on was over-regulation and its burdensome effects on small businesses, said Meghan Lapp, fisheries liaison for Seafreeze Ltd., of North Kingstown. “Every single fishing vessel is a small, mobile corporation, so if he’s seeing 15 or 20 boats, he’s seeing 15 or 20 small businesses right there and there’s thousands of them along the East Coast,” she said. “In the fishing industry, we’re dealing with a lot of over regulation and we believe there’s a lot of things that could be done to make the industry thrive again.” click here to read the story 07:28

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Video, click here Local fishermen hope President Trump will help commercial fishing industry

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Attention US East Coast Fishermen.

On may 17th President Donald Trump will be giving the commencement address to the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London CT. We are seeking interested commercial fishing vessels to come together in a show of solidarity to ask our President to look into the management problems that have plagued our industry for decades. We all know the issues that are destroying our industry and we need to get the word out to his administration that we, like farmers, coal miners and a whole host of American small businessmen are struggling to hang onto our businesses because of the onerous regulatory situation that has plagued our industry. What we are seeking is if there are enough interested people to put together a flotilla of vessels to sail up the Thames River as a show of support for his plan to minimize industry and job killing over regulation.  We recognize this is short notice but this is a golden opportunity to show the President who we are and the importance of our industry to the fabric of our nation and our coastal communities. If we find enough support and a commitment to show up to form a parade of vessels we will announce more details as to the time we would need to assemble and also receive other ideas to get the message to the President on our desire to “Make commercial fishing great again”. This is not a protest of our President. It is a rally in support of his pro business agenda that would benefit all Americans. If interested please call Bob Guzzo @860-608-5988 or Joel Hovanesian @401-742-3162 Thank you for your consideration to this undertaking. 14:23