Marshfield, Massachusetts: Local fishermen react to federal disaster relief funding
John Haviland, a fisherman from Marshfield, said issuing fishermen a check, though well meaning, is not the answer. “Commercial fishermen want to be allowed to catch fish and be commercial fishermen,” he said. “We want to fish.” He said while $75 million sounds like a lot of money, “the pool is relatively large for that amount of money.” “By the time it gets to the fishermen, there is not going to be enough to sustain them,” he said. Read more@wickedlocal 10:25
john is right…its about much much more than a check….its about a way of life that is slowly being stripped from the little guy and handed off to corporate boats and companies…just like out west.
As these politicians congratulate themselves, and give each other kudos for settling on a very paltry sum of money that will be applied to four federal fishery failures, the New England fishery failure stands out as unique in it’s creation, not by fish stocks, but by absolutely destructive government regulations.
This is a regulatory created crisis, and the $75 million is a another slap in the face for these hard working, discriminated against people.
As usual, comments from the public will blame this on these people, but rest assured, if they knew the real story, they would reserve the judgemental heckling that is not true, and scold these self serving politicians.
From another article: As was also the case in the prior year reported, 2011, more than half of the available quota was not harvested. While some in the regulatory and environmental communities have blamed a lack of fish for the inability of fishermen to catch their quotas, industry members cite conflicting or badly-designed regulations and “choke stocks,” also known as choke species, that cause fishing to cease on other species when the choke stock’s quota is reached.
BH you are spot on
Thank you, Joel