SF Port Commission considers letting fish be sold directly from boats at Fisherman’s Wharf
San Francisco fishermen are hoping to catch a break by reviving an old policy that allows them to sell fish directly from their boats. Dozens of fishermen, processing tenants, wholesalers and owners from local businesses packed the Port Commission meeting on Tuesday in what Commission President Willie Adams described as unprecedented numbers to discuss the proposed policy, which was resurrected by fishermen who approached the Port of San Francisco in January. The proposal would allow fishermen to sell fish to the public, fresh from their boats, at the dock in Fisherman’s Wharf Harbor for the first time in nearly two decades. But some fish processors and wholesalers have concerns of an uneven playing field. click here to read the story 09:04
“But some fish processors and wholesalers have concerns of an uneven playing field.” Now, if that statement is coming from a conglomerate, market capitalized, corporate style gobble-up-everything-you-can-as quickly-as-you-can, control-the-price-pay squat-to-the-“harvesters”, and-smirk-all-the-way-to-the-bank type of “processors and wholesalers”, isn’t that just a bit disingenuous—not to mention unethical and uneven and paying allegiance to the corporatocracy?
When have fishermen ever had a level “playing field”???
From the article:
“But some fish processors and wholesalers have concerns of an uneven playing field.”
Now, if that statement is coming from a conglomerate, market capitalized, corporate style gobble-up-everything-you-can-as quickly-as-you-can, control-the-price-pay-squat-to-the-“harvesters”- and-smirk-all-the-way-to-the-bank type of “processors and wholesalers”, isn’t that just a bit disingenuous—not to mention “uneven”, unethical, and clearly an attitude in line with the corporatocracy?
When have fishermen ever had a “level playing field”???
From the article: “Currently, commercial fishers must go through a fish processor that follows federal, state and local laws to ensure environmental, health, safety and insurance regulations are met. Processors and wholesalers expressed concern that fishermen may be able to bypass the established process to sell wholesale, as this may create an unbalanced business climate where fishermen are exempt from the overhead costs wholesalers have to pay.”
“If they want to sell, I have no problem with it, but put them on the same playing field as the rest of us,” said Dan Strazzullo, owner of the seafood wholesaler All Shores Seafood. “It costs me a lot of money to run my business.”
Clearly, fishermen need good family business style processors and wholesalers, they certainly can’t sell thousands of pounds of Squid across the dock directly to consumers. But, fishermen also need the wholesalers to respect the Men and Women (as in FisherMEN’S Wharf) involved in that dehumanized term “commercial fishers”. However, there is not much more than exploitation and disrespect involved in contending that fishermen selling a box or two of fish over the dock (i.e.,without a middleman) will somehow skirt the myriad fishing laws and regulations and “create an unbalanced business climate”. This is patently absurd.
And Mr. Strazzullo, News Flash: It costs fishermen “a lot of money (and lives) to run their businesses, as well.