Cape Ann Museum celebrates family owned fishing vessels – seeking community participation
As the great-granddaughter, granddaughter and daughter of fishermen, Nina Testaverde Goodick always shared her family’s profound pride in its fishing vessels over the generations. “These fishing vessels were at the very core of our family,” the Gloucester woman said. “They provided for us — the Linda B., Peter & Linda, Sea Fox, Nina T. and The Midnight Sun to name a few. In our homes, you could always find a painting of these vessels, hanging in a place of honor.” In that spirit of pride and in anticipation of the city’s 400th anniversary, the Cape Ann Museum is seeking community participation for a future special exhibition about family fishing vessels. >click to read< 08:12
Sadly, I’m afraid a museum will be all that’s left of this industry sooner rather than later. At least the family operated portion of it.
As was predicted over a decade ago when fishermen were fed the bs about how catch shares were going to save them, the consolidation is well underway. The industry is being bought out by deep pocketed corporate raiders transitioning it from the small family business model, to the large corporate takeovers we’ve witnessed over the years. And to add insult to injury, many of these large corporations are multi national and foreign owned.
All of this was predicted when this ill advised plan was installed by unelected disingenuous political appointees like Jane Lubchenco who opened the door for this takeover.
It’s a sorry state of affairs, the horse has left the barn never to return. Are we better off? Are independent small fishing companies going to survive? Good question.
Now the nation is faced with the takeover of its offshore waters by those who want to industrialize it with wind farms, aqua culture, and a host of other environment destroying industries.
Were all of these plans advanced with this takeover in mind? We’ll probably never know, but my guess is that it has always been a means to an end.