Richard Gaines has passed today.
Richard Gaines, the award-winning 40-year New England journalist who spent more than a decade as staff writer with the Gloucester Daily Times and carved out a national niche with his local coverage of the commercial fishing industry, was found dead this afternoon in the swimming pool outside his home in his beloved Bay View section of the city.
NILS STOLPE: The New England groundfish debacle (Part IV): Is cutting back harvest really the answer?
While it’s a fact that’s hardly ever acknowledged, the assumption in fisheries management is that if the population of a stock of fish isn’t at some arbitrary level, it’s because of too much fishing. Hence the term “overfished.” Hence the mandated knee jerk reaction of the fisheries managers to not enough fish; cut back on fishing. What of other factors? They don’t count. It’s all about fishing, because fishing is all that the managers can control; it’s their Maslow’s Hammer. When it comes to the oceans it seems as if it’s about all that the industry connected mega-foundations that support the anti-fishing ENGOs with hundreds of millions of dollars a year in “donations” are interested in controlling. Read the article here
I don’t know who will feel Richard’s passing the most, Gloucester or the entire fishing industry? This is just a tremendous loss to both! I’m just glad that I knew him as well as I did, but I wish that I had known him even better!
Jim Kendall
nbsc
jeez Jim, huh?
Richard Gaines was more then just a fishing industry reporter….he made us more informed and brought US fishermen together, especially my buddy here, Borehead at FISHERY NATION. Due to his stories and his support for fishermen, he may have been one of the most influential forces for exposing the utter malfeasance at NOAA and NMFS. We, and I should add myself, grieve for his untimely passing.
EC NEWELLMAN
FISHING UNITED.COM
I’m gonna post a story I did about him, EC
There are a couple of GMG videos worth watching in the article.
Damn this is awful.