Letter: Accumulation of quota harms fishing industry – Frederick Brodsky – southcoasttoday.com
October 18, 2012 12:00 AM
Accumulation of fishing quota harms the whole industry
I keep reading about the demise of the fishing industry as the result of reduced quotas, as you point out on Page 1 of the Oct. 14 edition (“Industry’s big, little fish in peril”). What is not mentioned is the effect of “slipper captains” who sell their quotas, sit on shore and do not contribute to the health of the industry.
This concentration of quotas also has a major effect on the health of the fishing industry. Fewer boats with a larger percentage of quotas exacerbates the effect of smaller quotas. Why will no one discuss this practice or its effect on the industry?
Frederick Brodsky
Fairhaven
The financialization of the fisheries is devastating for the fish, the fishermen, the consumers, and the world's food supply. This same "free-market capitalization" process has half the world starving and the other half eating contaminated chemical-saturated garbage.
Financial market capitalization and industrialization caused the extinction of the independent sustainable family farm and resulted in the degradation of the quality our food supply. We can't let this happen to our fisheries.
We can't Dick. We have to stop it and reverse it.