Letter to the editor in rebuttal of “Anonymous”
Recently Fishery Nation published an opinion piece first published in Granitegrok.com entitled “Something Smells Like Rotten Fish”. I agree: the rotten fish is the anonymous author. My name is David Goethel, and I am a semi-retired commercial fisherman with over fifty five years’
experience and author of the book Endangered Species about my life as a small boat fishermen in New Hampshire. I am also a dues paying member of the New Hampshire Commercial Fishermen’s Association. The author states Erik Anderson supports offshore wind and selectively quotes from the electronic newsletter to support his belief. Nothing could be further from the truth and reading anonymous’ comments I feel like I am in a “through the looking glass” moment. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 17:44
BS
This is a submitted comment from Jim Lovegren.
“Dave, thanks for writing this rebuttal to the anonymous letter posted criticising Erik Anderson and his work for the New Hampshire fishermans association. I have known both of you for over 25 years and you both have done an excellent job fighting for the fishing industry despite the fact that the government has been hell bent on destroying it. What kind of coward would write such a critical letter and not be man enough to sign his name? Fishermen who are willing to become fishery managers accept the fact that they have to make decisions that have serious effects on their fellow fishermen, and that many of their decisions may not be popular within the industry. Many of those decisions may also be a matter of picking the lesser of two evils, because it never seems that there are any good alternatives. In my experience I always found both you and Erik to be among the most respected and effective NEFMC members. In my 50 plus years of fishing industry experience I have watched as fishermens associations have been created and fell by the wayside for various reasons. Funding is the most critical, and as our industry has been exterminated it leaves fewer and fewer fishermen to pay the dues to keep an organization running. New Hampshire fishermen have been lucky to have the both of you dedicate so much of your lives to fight for the common good of all fishermen. I would recommend that if you want to keep the association going that you call a meeting or three to hash out the differences and let the critics see exactly what the association has been doing with Erik’s free time. I bet that all of New Hampshire’s fishermen put together have not attended as many meetings as either you or Erik. They were out making money fishing while you two were sitting at BS meetings attempting to save their livelyhoods. And what do you get for that? An Anonymous letter. I hope you guys can fix the problem, which might very well be just a misunderstanding of the issues, but if you don’t address them the association will fall by the wayside. like many others before them, good luck, Jim