Massachusetts Congressional Candidate meets with members of the Gloucester Fishing Community

August 7, 2020

I had the distinct honor of visiting one of my most favorite cities in the world, Gloucester, Massachusetts, on Friday, July 24th. The purpose of my visit, during this pandemic, was to meet with several tried and true men of the Gloucester fishing industry, a staple of the culture, lifestyle and lifeblood of this historic community.

“Our catches continue to get smaller, while government oversight gets bigger”, said one of the fishermen. “The industry has suffered strangulation by government regulation”

I heard from the community that we need to rework the Magnuson Act. The industry needs to be included in discussions and draftings of federal regulations and national legislation. The Gloucester fishing community must be addressed with transparency, and not with lip service. Topics touched upon were disaster relief, international fish coming into the States at lower prices than freshly caught fish from our own community, wastewater affecting our fish supply and the impact of COVID to the fishing industry..

I am listening, focusing on understanding the decades long history of challenges that have been presented to this historic fishing stronghold. This community does not need more political pandering, they need someone to listen and work with them. I commit to being available to this community, both at home and in D.C. I will give them a seat at the 6th congressional districts table.

Jamie Zahlaway Belsito
Democratic Candidate for Congress
Congressional District MA 06
www.belsitoforcongress.com
202 642 4959

Ocean Resource Privatization

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The New England groundfish debacle (Part III): who or what is at fault? Nils E. Stolpe/FishNet

It took me a while to decide how to most accurately describe the situation that has been visited upon the New England fishing communities that are and since colonial times have been dependent on the groundfish fisheries.

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

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