Someone asked Tina Jackson About the “Bailout” – “As head of AAFC would you like to make some sort of official statement?” She Answered.
“That money will never get approved by the house in my opinion. Harry Reid made the pledge to John Kerry to attach it to the Agricultural bill and it won’t get voted on until after the election. I believe the Ag Bill still has ethanol subsidies in it and the Repubs wan’t them removed, ethanol causes higher carbon emissions than gas/diesel and it adds 46 cents,,,,,,,,”
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That money will never get approved by the house in my opinion. Harry Reid made the pledge to John Kerry to attach it to the Agricultural bill and it won't get voted on until after the election. I believe the Ag Bill still has ethanol subsidies in it and the Repubs wan't them removed, ethanol causes higher carbon emissions than gas/diesel and it adds 46 cents to every gallon of gasoline. So….the House of Reps are fighting to change that. The most important factor is that the fishermen don't want bailouts, they want the fish that we know is out there and that was promised to them. The people who already own the largest portions of fish (the people who had money to buy up everyone in the first place) would be the ones to get it. Not only that, I am to understand that the money is in the form low interest loans. Why would fishermen want to over-extend themselves even more if they won't be allowed to catch the fish they need to pay back the loan. (if in fact the money is in the form of a loan) The government has always paid for at sea monitoring, they have it suspended now because they don't have the money to cover the costs, but next year the fishermen will have to pay, so that is when the NEFMC (council) will re-start the program. If they don't have the money to pay, how the hell are we supposed to pay for it, through a low interest loan. Why bother to continue with the program at all.????They very rarely utilize the information for stock assessments anyway, by their own admission.
That money should go to all the fishermen who were forced to sell, those who are no longer groundfishing, because they could not bear the costs of sectors, not just active boats. Also, not one single organization should get a dime. Of course they are looking to cover costs of sectors, the 4 big winners who now own it all will be getting the largest portion of that money.
Tell Jane Lubchenco to put back the 54 million she took from cooperative research to implement catch shares and we won't need to fund cooperative research with this money. If there is any university that gets any money at all, the fishermen will only be satisfied with Dr. Brian Rothschild SMass/Dartmouth and Jimmy Ruhle's NEAMAP study. Not a single other university or persons should get a dime. It seems to me and many others that Smass and Neamap lost almost all of their funding because they stuck up for the fishermen, and within two years every other university is getting money except them. There is no better man for science than Dr. Rothschild, one of the top 4 Marine Scientists in the world, and no better fisherman who took the initiative to counter the gov't assessments than Jim Ruhle. They have the best available science and they are extremely reasonable in costs. They are very successful in their data and their accuracy, now if we could only get the federal gov't to use their science, we would see plenty of fish for us to catch. We all know the gov't is skewing the information, it keeps justifying their crisis and their ability to consolidate us even more. The gov't boat, the Bigelow, is part of the stock assessments for lobsters, isn't that a suprise now we have reductions there???
JOB RETRAINING, SOME OF THESE GUYS ARE OVER 50, WHAT ARE THEY GONNA DO BUILD HOUSES!!!! PLEASE!!
Just let us go back to days at sea with the amount of days each boat had prior and scrap this whole system. I don't care how much those big winners have invested or how much the gov't has invested. 2 years of catch shares and we have a full collapse???? Wasn't Catch Shares supposed to increase stocks and fishermen were to get an increase each year of the program??? In Fish Inc. by Food and Water watch (attached, page 5), they have calculated that not one single catch share program has ever gotten an increase, not one. Some have decreased by 75%. This program is a total failure, why would they be asking for a bailout if it were successful. The federal gov't doesn't need to keep throwing good money after bad under NOAA. We should have our own Dept of Fisheries with Dr. Brian Rothschild at the helm.
Director Coit and the Governor Chaffee must not rely on enviro groups or enviro backed fishermen or even their own staff to detail where this money goes, the policies/stipulations should come straight from the very people that have been hurt by this and if a board or council is considered, The RI Fishing fleet, permit holders and crew, should be the ones to choose those people who are going to represent them, not an appointment by any administrative personnel. There must be a vote as to who sits on any possible proposed panel.
I understand that New Zealand removed their fishing industry out of their commerce dept and the industry is thriving and all are benefiting. The United States Government under this administration has completely decimated America's fishing industry. If we take a hard look at Obama's Oceans policy and Agenda 21 under the United Nations, there are 700 pages of Fisheries restrictions for the US. This is the Obama administrations policy for fishing, put us out of business, give up our 200 mile limit of US Oceans and hand it over to the UN. Great Policy huh???? This President and his choice of Dr. Jane Lubchenco is the very reason this train wreck has now jumped off the rails and is falling deeper and deeper into the abyss.
My Official statement is this, The simple fact that bail-out monies are being asked for is proof positive that the Groundfish Catch Share program is an utter and complete failure. RI Fishermen do not want any bail-out money, they want the fish they were promised. After 30 years of severe conservation and regulations, the gov't hasn't saved a single fish yet. I know the American People are smarter than that. Before wasting another dime of tax-payer's money, Catch Shares should be scrapped and a full return to days at sea with the amount of days each boat had is the appropriate step to take, or give all permit holders the option to return to days at sea with the days they had prior to the program. This management program was sold to the American tax-payer as a conservation necessity, if Catch Shares are so successful in preserving the stocks, how could they have totally collapsed in just two years of this program. This is just another example of the Policy failures of the Obama Administration. As far as The RI Fisheries Task force,they have done nothing to give RI a voice for one of our greatest and most esteemed industries. The biggest achievement by the task force last year was to increase fines for striped bass fishermen who were given a violation. Wow, that's really gonna save the industry.
I think I've said it all, don't you? Thanks for asking Mike, always appreciate you taking the time to include me and my membership. You can always use the rest of this as a letter to the editor if you'd like. Use whatever else you like outside of my official statement
Tina