Capt. Mark Phillips and the Illusion, the last of its kind
‘It’s not fish you’re buying – it’s men’s lives.’’ – Sir Walter Scott. The Predator sits dockside in Greenport, behind Alice’s Fish Market, a rusting hulk of a fishing trawler, 75 feet long and with no certain future to speak of. It is Mark Phillips’ boat, but he is away most days trolling offshore for squid in his other trawler, the Illusion. “It is not going to sea anytime soon,” Phillips said by cellphone, an edge of weary disgust in his voice. “The Predator’s days have come and gone.” The Illusion was dragging for squid near Nantucket on a hot day in mid-July. Phillips had started that week near Jones Inlet on western Long Island, but the ocean had heated up and the squid, which don’t like warm water, were scarce, so he moved the Illusion farther east in pursuit of success. >click to read<09:41
When the federal government instituted the 200 mile limit back in 1976 it was to protest fishermen from the foreign fleets fishing off of our shores. A noble idea. Fast forward, the government has done more to cripple this industry than the foreigners ever could have done.
Between the radical environmental organizations that spew forth multitudes of lies about what fishermen do to demonize us and incite people to donate to their unholy cause, to the government agencies that have grown to a point where the people who regulate now outnumber those whom they are regulating the downward spiral continues.
Only in America could a government official make a statement that our nations fisheries policies are a success while our nations seafood consumption is over 95% imported from nations with little or no regulations at all. Would you consider this a success?
How long before this nation is dependent upon others to feed us? This trend must be reversed. Small businessmen like the Phillips family are going the same way as the family farmer went.
DEMAND WILD CAUGHT LOCAL SEAFOOD!