FISHERYNATION.COM

Looking back; revisiting “Trawlgate”.

Five New England fishermen and myself met at Woods Hole Ma. On the evening of Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2002, to board the N.O.A.A. Research Vessel Albatross IV. The other fishermen were Jim Odlin, Sam Novello, Bud Fernandes, Matt Stommel, and Steve Lee. We met with Steve Murawski, (who did not go out on the trip) and with Henry Milliken, and Russell  Brown who were in charge of reviewing the fishing and filming of this short cruise. Individually we walked around the vessel and checked out the net and gear. As I was the last fisherman to arrive, the gear, (which was laying on the deck) had already been closely scrutinized by the other fishermen, and some problems had been identified.

Matt Stommel, who is the fisherman that had been saying that the cables were not properly measured since he saw them being put on in 2000, noticed that one door was wearing differently then the other, meaning that the gear probably was not spreading properly. (Please read, Mistrust between scientists, fishermen mars key mission) This observation was later reinforced  by our observations underwater with the video camera. The camera was mounted in the center of the top line (head rope) but  whenever  we had the camera facing dead center backwards, (towards the codend), the  bottom sweep would be off center towards the starboard side. As these doors (Portuguese Polyvalent), are rarely used anymore, and weren’t very common even when they were new, most of us had little first hand experience in using them, but we thought that the problem was probably being caused by excessive wear in the door  brackets. As the doors are probably the single most important component of a properly tuned  otter trawl rig, having one door not working properly can have a major effect on catch rate, as the spread of the net can be affected.

Two other observations were made about the net as it lay on the deck. Upon casual notice it appeared that the cookie sweep on one wing appeared to be newer than the other. Closer observation confirmed that one wing’s sweep had been replaced as there were definitely new cookies on one sweep, and old worn ones on the other. The worst aspect of this wing change was that by visual observation it was plainly clear that the new wing had more cookies on it then the other wing. Upon measuring the wings and comparing them, the wire rope sweep which is threaded through each individual cookie were both the same length, 22 and a half feet. But there were 16 inches more cookies at the wing end of the port wing, (new sweep side). I would bet that if each cookie sweep was removed from the net and individually weighted that the new sweep would weigh considerably more then the old sweep, even if they were the same length, due to the wear and tear placed on the old cookies as they scraped and bounced along various bottom types. Also noticeable  by casual observation was that the roller chains (droppers)  were not attached to the sweep at the standardized spacing of 2 feet, some were less, we didn’t measure and count these but we probably should have. Absolutely, there is no question that one wing was not the same as the other. The second thing was noticed, once again by Matt, who since he lives in Woods Hole is very familiar with this net. Matt claims that the foot rope used to be tied to the  wire rope traveler in the space between each length of roller chain.

The foot rope is now tied to the 3 inch rings at the end of each roller chain. This would be, in our opinion, another change that would affect the catch rate of the net, as the twine would behave a little differently then before. In an 8 page paper on the specifications for construction of N.E.F.S.C. standard #36 bottom survey trawl (601-801) that was given to us so that we could see the nets exact specifications, you can see from a diagram of the net on page 4 that the footrope was formerly tied to the traveler, it appears that this diagram is dated 10/27/00 which means that the change to the footrope was probably made since then. The reason a change was made is also referenced in this paper on page 3 in the paragraph for seizing’s. The footrope is seized to the pear shaped rings that are used to attach the droppers (roller chains) to the sweep. The traveler passes through the pear shaped rings that the footrope is seized to.

This eliminates the problem of the seizing’s slipping and bunching of the footrope”.  This 8 page paper states that it was updated on 8/12/2002, the need for the update was probably to note this change in the way the footrope was hung, they forgot to update the net diagram though and that clearly shows the  footrope tied to the traveler. In my opinion the change in how they hung the footrope was probably a good change in that it would reduce maintenance of the net, as the seizing’s would not slip and the net would hold its shape better. But how this change would affect the nets performance is unknown and could be substantial either for better or worse.

These observations that, as noted, were made before we even left the dock, point out very serious discrepancies in the center’s supposed standardization procedures, where we have been told over and over again that changes could not be made in the survey or to the net because their effect could not be substantiated. These changes, repairs, and unnoticed problems by themselves would have some effect on the nets performance, cumulatively their effect could be enormous.

We left the dock and steamed during the night to one of the sampling stations on the fall survey. A few tows were made during the night, I don’t know whether it was two or three as I went to bed, since the camera tows were going to be made in the daylight. But during the setting of the net on this first tow, Matt observed the net had a tangle as a few floats on the head rope became tangled with the sweep and footrope on one wing. Matt waited until the last moment when he was absolutely sure that the deck crew had not noticed this obvious screw up and the doors were about to be set, before he pointed out the problem, at which the net was hauled back aboard enough to straighten it out. When a float becomes stuck between the sweep and the headrope it rarely comes out by itself, the resulting tangle will cause the sweep to lift off the bottom and the headrope to close to the sweep. Depending on where the tangle occurs it will have varying degrees of  effect upon the tow from serious to  disastrous. A tangle close to the wing end would not be as bad as a tangle where  a float in the center of the net became entangled with the roller gear.

A tangle there would shut the whole net and result in a virtual zero catch for that tow, while a tangle near a wing end would only affect one wing, and the net would still fish but at a reduced efficiency. I must point out that due to the what I consider to be the long length between the hangings of the footrope and the sweep (a stated 24 inches) this tangle up is probably a common occurrence as this space is so large that when the net is being set out and both the headrope and the sweep are near the surface, the floats find their way into a hole and if not noticed rarely come out until they are manually pulled out by a crewman who should notice them. This isn’t a problem that is limited only to this net or to the Albatross, this problem is a common occurrence with many nets, especially large mesh nets where the floats will tangle in the wing mesh itself. This is a basic problem that fishermen always look out for and is almost always detected before the net is set, if it is not noticed the finger of blame gets pointed to someone when the net comes back screwed up and the tow was wasted.

We made our first filmed  tow off of Long Island in about 70 feet of water and it was decided that because of poor visibility we should haul back and try deeper waters where visibility might be better. We then made a  series of tows of  thirty to forty minutes each during the day in various depths of between ten and thirty nine fathoms. During each tow we would start by towing the wires even for  5 to 10 minutes to observe the net’s behavior under normal conditions and watch the behavior of the fish as they entered the nets fishing circle, and swam with the net, until they either tired and fell back into the net, just swam away somewhere, or were either run over by the rollers, or escaped under the cookie sweep which at most times was a few inches off the bottom because of the large difference in size between the rollers in the center of the net (16 inches) and the cookies that are on the wings sweep which are only 4 inches high. This is about a 6 inch difference at the corner where the cookies meet the rollers and would gradually lessen as the sweep approached the wing end and the ground gear. It appeared to us that  about half of each wing was not touching bottom during normal operation of the net, with the cables at equal lengths. It should be noted that at no time was visibility  clear enough to see the end of the wings  and that size and possibly distances were distorted to some extent.

The most common species observed were dogfish and loligo squid  but the tows were tripped overboard so actual catch was unknown but minimal. After the initial even towing of the cables, the wires were then offset by two feet by letting out two feet of wire on one side. While the wire was being let out, the camera showed  a shift in the center of the net as the wing on the side that was being let out gradually shifted back. The wing that remained in its position showed a shifting in the position of the rollers, as they started to cock sideways a little, and created a larger dust cloud. The twine near this corner showed slight folding as the net started to distort.

After a number of minutes of observations the net would then be let out another two feet for an offset total of four feet. Once again you could visibly watch the wing shift back as now the center of the net that normally goes through the water in a U shape  started to take on the characteristics of an L. The twine on the slacked back wing showed a slight bowing  effect while the stable wing’s twine showed increased folding and the rollers were almost sideways and plowing heavily through the bottom creating a large dust cloud. The slacked back wing was lifting off the bottom more then previously and  showed  more sensitivity to bumps  on the bottom or waves on the surface.

At a six foot offset the nets distortion was substantial and we all felt its fishing efficiency was substantially compromised. The slacked back wing was  having a hard time making bottom contact, and the twine was  creating a half tunnel effect. On the stable wing the rollers were dramatically plowing through the bottom trailing a large cloud of dust, and the twine showed even further folding and distortion. The clouds of dust that were picked up by the rollers and wings were very informative in showing how the net was pulling through the water as the angle of the clouds would change as the net changed shape. The dust clouds on the slacked back wing were flowing straight back behind the  rollers and cookies while on the stable, forward  towing wing, the clouds were flowing  back but were coming off of the rollers from the side of them as they plowed sideways across the bottom.

At the 12 foot setback the results would have to be considered catastrophic. The slacked back wing was at a right angle to the other wing creating an L shape as the net towed through the bottom. The twine on the slacked back wing was bowed in the half tunnel effect, and probably was now more of a gill net than a trawl net. Bottom contact was severely impacted on this wing and could be described as minimal. Major plowing was taking place to the rollers and the cookies on the stable, leading wing. The folds and distortion of twine on this wing increased even further. Only the dumbest (or unluckiest) fish in the ocean would be caught by a net this distorted.

After observing the nets reaction through these changes in wire setbacks on one side we would then slack back the wire on the other side in the same manner. The results were the same, as the wire offset increased, so did the nets distortion. The  gear would then be hauled back and we would try a different depth. An observation was made that as we fished in deeper water it seems that the door that we believe to be working improperly worked better as we got deeper. The sensors that were placed on the doors showed little change in the spread of the doors, but that didn’t mean that the net was still being spread, the sensor is  measuring the distance between the doors, and as the one side was slacked back the distance between the doors stayed the same, but the door itself was falling back behind the other door and the spread of the net was being reduced. A flume tank would prove that effect, as would some not so simple to me math equations. We all strongly believe the doors should be changed and the pair that were being used should be thrown out.  There was a minimal amount of fish caught during these tows the first day and they were tripped overboard.

On the second day we wanted to see if we could find some Codfish to see if we could  catch them and to see if we could discern any change in our catching ability as we let out wire in the 2, 4, 6, and 12 foot setbacks.  We made two tows in the Nantucket lightship area, which didn’t produce any cod, but did result in a fifteen hundred pound  tow of mostly dogfish and a few loligo squid.

The same observations were noted as the day before to the net as the wire was let out, and we got to observe the net’s effect on dogfish. We watched quite a few dogfish get run over by the rollers and go under the center of the net. When the net was being towed evenly through the water the dogfish, and most other fish evidently gravitated to the center of the net. As the net was slacked back and the net lost shape the dogfish moved away from the center and slightly towards the slacked back wing. The most interesting observation made the second day, at least in my mind, was the filming of the net’s  behavior as we towed into 4 to 6 foot seas created by northeasterly winds of 15 to 20 knots. With the wires even as the ship came up and then down in between swells the whole net would lift off  of the bottom and then come back down a number of feet  further ahead. I compare it to a motorcycle  jumping over  a  series  of bumps.

Bottom contact in rough weather appears by this video to be seriously compromised which would definitely affect catch rates. Fish that are swimming in front of the center sweep get leapfrogged over as the net leaves the bottom and comes down many feet ahead of them. Much of this problem is caused by the excessive speed at which the trawl survey nets are towed. If they were towed at say, 3 knots, instead of 3.8, the net would probably always remain on the bottom except in the roughest of weather. Of course this would only be true with a net that tends bottom properly, and we all felt that because of the inherent flaw in the sweep design of this net that bottom contact would always be poor no matter what the conditions. The only way to improve bottom contact with this net is to change the size of some of the rollers so that there is a gradual change from the 16 inch rollers to the four inch cookies. But the best way to change this net would be to unhook the shackles that connect the wings to the bridles, remove the tripper rope, and replace the whole net with a newer design net that is more adept at doing the job the trawl survey requires of it. The old net could then be retired to an  antique fishing museum where it belongs, and the doors should go with it.

The crew of the Albatross acted at all times in a completely professional way, and showed a real dedication to their jobs and pride in their work. I don’t envy them when you realize that they go out for twelve days, come  back to port for two, and then are right back out again for another twelve, until the trawl surveys are done. You couldn’t pay me enough money to spend that much time at sea away from home and family. They do have a great selection of movies and an excellent cook, we all looked forward to our meals, our thanks to all on the Albatross for their hospitality. And a special thanks to Russell Brown, and Henry Milliken for their grace under pressure, and willingness to keep an open mind to our observations.

Despite opposition from the US delegation CITES [Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species, CoP 18] voted by more then the required two thirds majority to list Mako Shark under Appendix 2 which severely impacts the buying and selling of Mako shark meat and fins internationally. Two Species of Mako were listed, the long fin, and the Short fin, despite the fact that the best science available estimates the world wide population of Mako shark’s at over ten million fish and the CITES secretariat opposed their listing. Also listed were 6 species of Giant Guitarfish, and 10 species of Wedgefish’s both of which are Shark like skates and are highly valued for their fins.

CITES meets every three years at different locations around the world to discuss and review the status of endangered and threatened species of Flora and Fauna and how international trade in them effects their survival. Over their 50 plus years of existence they have listed thousands of plants and animals for trade restrictions in an attempt to save them from extinction. It is a noble cause and the delegates appointed to CITES take it very seriously. About 180 countries participate in the CITES convention, with many countries employing the full 8 delegate members allowed. Each country is allowed only one vote, per issue, and the vote in most cases require a two thirds majority. The country Delegates are named Party, [hence the CoP means convention of parties, with #18 being the 18 th meeting overall]. Also involved are the NGO’s who are observers to the convention, and are not allowed to vote, but are allowed some involvement in the discussions. There are generally between 3 and 4 thousand delegates at each CITES with the Party/NGO’s split about half and half.

I was very impressed with how well the convention was run since it included so many people from around the world, and was amazingly put together in record time due to the cancellation of the original site in Sri Lanka because of the Easter terrorist bombings a month before the Convention was
scheduled. Graciously the Swiss government [where CoP is headquartered] worked over time to help find a site, Palexpo at the Geneve airport, and then helped by donating over $600,000 to help cover the cost of the Convention, which ran from August 16 th to the 28 th . Palexpo is huge and situated conveniently right next to the airport. At the convention two meetings would take place at the same time in different meeting rooms with over a thousand participants in each room, which is why countries need at least 2 party delegates, and for better participation 4. CITES does not pay delegates to attend they must come up with funding for their travel, room, and food by anyway they can, which leads to the wealthier countries being able to afford to send as many as 8 delegates, while poor third world countries may not even be able to afford to send anyone. This leads to problems as many of these poorer countries are the ones that have the most endangered plants and animals and also people that may depend on them for
subsistence. An Appendix 1 or 2 listing can have severe social and economic consequences for many people while sometimes doing nothing for the flora and fauna it is supposed to protect.

Over the last few decades a divide has been widening among the “no use” group, those people that believe that once listed there should be no trade what so ever in the listed creature, and the “sustainable use” group, those people that believe that some highly regulated trade not only can help
indigenous people that have historically utilized such flora and fauna but also is a better management tool for increasing and regulating their threatened populations. Caught in the middle of this rift are the poor countries that can’t afford to send delegates, they either participate with as little as one delegate and have to choose which meeting to attend, or they seek out third party “sponsors’ who are willing to donate money to these countries so that they can participate, and hence have a vote on the matters at hand. This is where the deep pockets of the “No use” NGO’s come into play, they can afford to pay to make sure that certain countries can attend the meetings and then vote for the things that they recommend. It is pure pay to play politics at its worst, and could somewhere down the line doom CITES to the trashcan of history. If people feel indebted to someone because of a gift they will do what that person wants even if it is against their better judgement. Because every country gets a vote, this leads in many cases to countries voting for or against listings they have absolutely no concern with, and they can sway the vote, and harm other countries that do have real concerns of the listing effect. CoP should aggressively work to solve the problem of poor countries participation and ban any contributions to voting parties by NGO’s.

I noted many similarities regarding the influence of green money on the CITES party delegates and what has been happening in U.S. fishery management. Sustainable use advocates are totally out gunned when it comes to trying to get their point across because the “No use” proponents have such a vast amount of money to spend due to the huge fortunes they have accumulated from fund raising, and corporate donations. This is exactly what is happening to U.S. fishermen, as small owner operator vessels are being squeezed out of fishery after fishery by the manipulations of “Greenwashed” corporate sponsored Enviro groups, out to save the planet. The U.S. government offers no help to the fishing industry because they are simple pawns to the energy companies that are running the show. Fishermen are just a nuisance, in the way of their offshore energy development plans.

As everybody in the fishing industry knows, the best available science may not be the best science, and politics can play as big a roll as actual science when it comes to fishery management or CITES listings. Cites utilizes the FAO, [Food and Agriculture Organization] a world wide collection of
scientists who review all the past and current science for flora and Fauna that is, or may be listed by CITES. When a species is proposed for a CITES listing its science is reviewed and Cites usually will make a recommendation concerning whether the species should be listed or not. This is also true if on the rare occasion a species may be downgraded or even unlisted. Generally the CITES recommendation rules the day. This is no longer true thanks to the growing effectiveness of the “No Use” advocates. They now orchestrate the media to play their doom and gloom songs, and spend millions to manipulate the vote of countries. During the closing ceremonies a party delegate from Mali actually thanked the Species Survival Network for their help.

In regard to the Mako shark vote, it reached the required two thirds needed for a listing, but it was close enough to dispute and possibly reopen the debate a few days later. That did not happen though as no one was willing to take the step required to reopen the debate. The U.S. delegation
certainly could have and had a number of other countries who would of supported them, but they were content to simply accept the defeat that will cost U.S. fishermen dearly in the future. CITES secretariat recommended against the Appendix 2 listing for Mako shark but their recommendation was ignored and NGO influenced countries, especially the European Union voted for the listing. The EU voted as a group with their vote counting as 28 votes, whether every country agreed or not. I find it hard to believe that some of those countries, especially Spain ,Portugal, Norway, and Sweden, all with long fishing histories, would vote against the science on this matter. If the Countries voted independently the vote would have been different. Also the debate could have been reopened and the U.S. could have discussed having the EU abstain from the vote, which would have changed the outcome. Unfortunately none of this happened.

Why does this matter? The “No Use” advocates have found that they can use the lack of absolute population estimates for marine species and influence the vote by crying the sky is falling, what if there are even less of these creatures then we think? There may only be 9 million Mako’s in the
world’s oceans. The prudent course in the case of Mako shark would have been to delay action for 3 years to see if present trends continue, and see if the stringent management measures many countries have taken to benefit Mako’s are having a positive effect. With a biomass of 200 million pounds of Mako swimming around, I don’t think a three year delay would hurt anything. What this vote does though is embolden the “No Use “ NGO’s to pursue other animals that are also not endangered, but suffer from a lack of science or knowledge of their populations. I can guarantee that Spiny Dogfish will once again come up for an Appendix 2 listing which would destroy the market for the healthy and well managed U.S. fishery and cause another environmental catastrophe as the Dogfish eat everything that swims on the US east coast. They are presently at 3 times the population level they were at in an unfished state in the 1960’s, and NMFS own science states without removal of some of the Elasmobranch biomass, the Cod, Haddock, and Flounder populations may never recover on the US east coast. Protection of Spiny Dogfish has cost the US economy hundreds of millions of dollars in lost fishing opportunity as many species have no chance of recovery because they are eaten by this voracious apex predator. Make no mistake, the Spiny Dogfish even though it is comparably small [about 3 feet] is the most dangerous fish on the US east coast. Schools of Thousands follow temperature gradients and eat everything in their way. While they may not be able to eat some mature species, you can be sure they eat their spawn. So be prepared for the NGO’s to come after many more marine species after their success in Geneve.

The CITES process is complicated, and we need to try to stay ahead of the “No Use” proponents which will be best accomplished by intervening earlier through the working groups, and committees, and working with the US government to assure that fishermen’s concerns are heard. My personal thanks to Eugene LaPointe and his marvelous wife Helene whose Group IWMC led the sustainable use proponents and brought me on as an expert fisherman for their contingent.

Thank you, James Lovgren

Earlier this year the state of New Jersey was found to be out of compliance by the Atlantic States Marine Fishery Commission [ASMFC] in regard to the proposed recreational catch specifications for Summer Flounder, [ fluke].The ASMFC which jointly manages summer flounder with the Mid Atlantic Fishery Management Council, [MAFMC] had recommended an increase in the recreational size limit for Summer Flounder to 19 inches for New Jersey. New Jersey fishery management representatives balked at that proposal and instead presented an alternative proposal that would keep the size limit at the present 18 inches but with a shorter season which would still meet the conservation goals as the Commission’s plan.

The Commission denied this alternative and declared New Jersey out of Compliance, an action that would result in the shutdown of the Summer Flounder fishery, both recreational and commercial sometime later this summer. Unfairly this shutdown would have occurred after the recreational season was over, and would only impact New Jersey’s commercial fishermen, who are already struggling with a 50% cut back in the quota over the last two years.

New Jersey appealed the ASMFC’s finding of non-compliance to U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who on July 11th announced that he agreed with New Jersey, and found its proposed specifications would meet the mandated conservation goals as well as the Commissions regulations would. On July 14th the Commission responded with a “sky is falling” press release objecting to the Secretary’s decision, and setting up New Jersey as the fall guy for the so called collapse of the stock.

Sadly, yet predictably- this is just another example of misdirection by those organizations that are charged with managing our fisheries. The Fishery managers need only look in the mirror to fix any blame for why the Summer Flounder stock seems to be in trouble, [A contention I firmly disagree with]. It is their mismanagement that has caused the recreational industry to target only the largest breeders in the biomass, killing the large females that produce the most viable eggs, while at the same time causing millions of Fluke to be discarded dead every year even though they are perfect sized for eating, 14 to 18 inches, they are legally too short according to this misguided management.

Fifteen years ago, as a member of the MAFMC, I stated to this group that the constant increasing of the recreational size limit was at some point going to do more damage than good. I said then that I believe that once you reach a size limit of 16 or more inches that the effects of discarding would nullify any gains from reducing the catch by increasing the size limit. At that time, with a possession size limit of 16 inches, I estimated a five to one discard to catch rate. That has since climbed to twenty to one in some areas, meaning that to catch a single “keeper”, an angler will discard 19 smaller fish.

Obviously many of those twenty fish will die, and the National Marine Fishery Service is sticking with a 10% mortality rate for those discards. I personally know of nobody who believes that percentage to be correct. It may well be 50% mortality. Regardless of what the real mortality rate is, even at 10% with a twenty to one keeper rate, that’s millions of dead fish annually, and hundreds of thousands of disaffected anglers, who now disregard the regulations because they find them ridiculous. I urged the Council/Commission to do the math, find the number where discard mortality negates any benefits from increasing the size limit, and work with that. They never did.

I have been commercial fishing for over forty years and Summer Flounder is my primary target. The stock reached a historical high level about five years ago and has since declined slightly according to my fishing experience. The last two years I’ve noted a small decline in my catch per unit of effort, but this year I have seen the best recruitment of 14 and 15 inch fish I have seen in at least five years. This past month my CPU has been the best ever, resulting in short day trips of 5 hours dock to dock for my 500 pound trip limit. One two hour tow, and go home. The two month season lasted 2 weeks thanks to the ease of catch, combined with the recent reductions in quota . The Summer Flounder stock is still near the historic high level of spawning stock biomass yet the fishing industry is allowed to catch only 20% of the landings that were common 35 years ago with a lower spawning stock biomass.

There is no shortage of Summer Flounder only some angry stock assessment scientists who’re still mad that the fishing industry hired their own scientist a few years back to do his own independent stock assessment using the same NMFS data. Lo and behold Dr. Maunder discovered the science was wrong. Coincidentally the fishing industry has hired their own scientists on the east coast for two other fisheries, scallops, and monkfish. In both those fisheries the North East Fisheries Science Center’s stock assessment science was found to be wrong, resulting in a higher quota for the species. So it seems like there is a pattern regarding the NEFSC, if an independent scientist examines the same data that a NEFSC scientist does, he gets vastly different results, that prove the quota’s have been set too low.

This brings up the National Academy of Science’s review of all of the fishery management plans that underwent rebuilding after being found to be overfished since the Sustainable Fisheries act was implemented in 1996. They discovered that in the whole country twenty stocks underwent rebuilding plans that were later found to have not needed them, causing reductions in quota, closures, and putting people out of business. Amazingly the study found that of those twenty stocks ten of the wrong assessments originated in the NEFSC. There are 6 Fishery Science Centers in the U.S. and no other one had more than two mistakes. Not included in the study was Butterfish, and Menhaden which were erroneously declared overfished after the study was concluded, which were also wrongly assessed by the NEFSC. That makes 12 out of 22 stocks wrongly assessed by the NEFSC which is clear incompetence in anybody’s book. These mistakes cost the American public hundreds of millions of dollars, yet no one was held accountable, and the results were swept under the rug.

A decade before the National Academy of Science study, “Trawlgate” occurred where it was discovered that a trawl survey vessel had been towing their net around for at least two annual surveys with one tow cable shorter than the other. As a result a Trawl survey advisory group was formed, [of which I was a member] and they designed a new net for the new survey vessel that was soon to be deployed. This net was going to use two different sweeps, a large “rock Hopper” sweep for the Gulf of Maine with 12 inch rubber “cookies”, while a smaller 4 inch “cookie” sweep would be used in the Georges Bank and Mid Atlantic regions due to their sand/ mud bottom habitat. The 4 inch cookie sweep is the industry standard size and is designed to catch flatfish, and other demersal species. The large Rock Hopper just runs over flatfish. At the same time the NEFSC cancelled their annual winter trawl survey which was designed to catch flatfish, explaining that by using the new 4 inch cookie sweep in the spring and fall surveys they should get accurate data on flatfish. Within months of the winter survey cancellation they decided that they would only use the large rock hopper sweep throughout the whole of the survey area, resulting in the abandonment of the trawl survey advisory panel, as industry members quit in disgust.

With that track record in mind we return to Dr. Maunder who discovered that although Summer Flounder stock assessments had been being performed for over 40 years no one happened to notice that males rarely grew bigger than 17 inches, and that fish bigger than 18 inches are almost all female. Not taking this important basic biological fact into consideration in doing a stock assessment is going to lead to very inaccurate spawning stock biomass numbers, and hence, “surprise” another wrong assessment . How embarrassing, of course doing the science right resulted in an increased quota. NMFS has been trying to get those fish back ever since.

So now the ASMFC is mad and wants blood from New Jersey. I guess they are not happy enough with every plan they develop stealing quota from New Jersey’s commercial and recreational fisheries to enrich their own states. They started this with the commercial Black Sea Bass fishery where under the proposed state by state quota system New Jersey would receive somewhere between 28 and 38 % of the whole quota due to its large historic landings, but a select group held a secret lunch time meeting where they agreed to reduce New Jersey’s share to 20% and buying other states votes by giving them a piece of New Jersey’s quota. Hard to vote against that. I’d like to see North Carolina willingly give up 10% of the Summer Flounder quota, fat chance that would ever happen. The ASMFC then went after New Jersey’s recreational fishing quota’s where they created regions in both Summer flounder, and Black Sea Bass, so that neighboring states with less historic quota could steal from New Jersey some more. The ASMFC has created a corrupt system where if you are not a member in standing of their “Good old boys network” they will set up votes and steal your quota. This has to end and the power of the ASMFC to steal has to be stopped. So Congratulation to Secretary Ross for his well reasoned decision. As for the Commission and the Council, get your act together and develop a management plan that does not target all the spawning stock biomass, while creating an enormous discard problem, think about a slot limit or total length, idea’s that have been suggested for decades, and ignored.

Jim Lovgren

                Harvey Haddock cursed his father, why did he have to be a commercial fisherman? He could have been anything, a doctor, lawyer, porno star, anything but a damn commercial fisherman. He knew it was wrong to curse his father, but his rage needed an outlet and since his problems started with his career choice, his anger naturally returned to its birthplace. His father was a fisherman, and so was his grandfather, brother, and uncles, it seemed like everybody in his family at some time was a fisherman, probably going all the way back to Sweden where his ancestors had originated. The difference was that in other countries, and even in America until a few years ago, Commercial fisherman were respected as the hard working food providers that they were, but somehow something went wrong in America. A well-oiled propaganda machine financed by huge multinational corporations and foundations had decided to villainize America’s fishermen so that they could move in and industrialize the Gulf of Mexico  and the Atlantic ocean.

                 Suddenly fishermen were evil greedy environmental rapists out to catch the last fish in the ocean, much like our frontier pioneers had hunted the buffalo to the edge of extinction. Some powerful forces were at work here and Harvey and his fishermen brothers were helpless to fight it. His boat, the Dragonlady, no longer was a source of pride and income but an anchor around his neck dragging him under and drowning him in a financial sea of red ink. After 30 years of ownership the bank was foreclosing on the Dragonlady, he could no longer afford to upkeep his gear or maintain the vessel in fishing shape, this was the end of the line. He had lost everything he owned, everything he had busted his ass off for over 40 years of hard labor to earn, everything he loved, including his wife. He now knew how those poor homeless people he read about in the newspapers, and saw on TV felt. He was just an empty husk of the young idealistic man he had once been. Even his soul, the one thing he thought no one could take from him, had become so corrupted and became so bitter that the anger and hatred overflowed like maggots writhing in the busted belly of a rotten Bluefish.

                 This would be the Dragonlady’s last trip. Harvey Haddock had had enough. He was steaming up the Jersey coast from Point Pleasant, destination; Liberty Island. There, live on the internet, with the Statue of Liberty in the background, he was going to blow the Dragonlady to smithereens along with himself. In the fishhold he had rigged up a homemade weapon of mass destruction, 10 hundred pound bottles of propane, and 20 five gallon containers of gasoline. He had no idea what kind of explosion that would make, but was sure that Bank of America was not going to get anything more than a few pieces of scrap metal from the Dragonlady. The gasoline was there simply to burn up whatever didn’t blow up, and also to provide him with a flaming entrance to hell. He knew he was going there, might as well make it as spectacular as possible.

                All his life he tried to do good but somehow nothing ever worked out right, someone or something always threw a monkey wrench into the plan. He was a broken down failure, with a bad back, bad eyes, and ears, and now diabetes. After 40 years of kneeling on the deck of a fishing boat picking fish, he would kneel no more. On your feet or on your knees, Harvey would submit to no one. Especially that giant prick, Uncle Sam and his evil minions of unaccountable bureaucrats. It seemed to him that every level of government had become so corrupted by the money of special interest groups that America land of the free and home of the brave, had become land of the rich and home of the slaves. The American Sheeple were clueless, give em a six pack and a TV and they were happy. Of course welfare checks were nice, a whole segment of the population had grown up expecting to be taken care of without giving anything in return. They were owed it, and as long as the democrats kept them feed, they would vote to keep them in office. Conversely the multinational corporations that really ran the country somehow lied, bribed, and pulled the wool over enough people’s eyes that they gave the Republican party enough power to create a cynical balance between socialism and outright unbridled capitalism. Harvey still loved his Country, he just hated his government and what it had become because of the outright greed of some of the wealthy. He knew those bastards would be joining him in hell one day soon.

Harvey’s journey up the coast to the Statue of Liberty would be his statement on the true condition of America, Blow it up and start again. The Dragonlady was now passing Asbury Park, a city that still hadn’t recovered from the racial riots of the 60’s. Try as they would the city would sell development rights to some developer with grand plans to revitalize the oceanfront only to watch as they would invariably go bankrupt, yet refuse to give up the development rights leaving the city in limbo. It had come a long way from the early 90’s when it looked like downtown Beirut, but still redevelopment was slow in coming.  Even still, Harvey remembered as he looked through his binoculars at Convention Hall seeing the Blue Oyster Cult with a new band from Boston opening for them called Aerosmith. Or the Ramones fresh from cutting their first album playing a small club called Juilio’s South in 1976. His first date with his future wife Candy, was a Ramones concert at the Paramount theatre in 1980. Asbury was a dive, but it had a great music scene, some guy named Springsteen even played there a few times.

Off the starboard side of the boat, movement caught Harvey’s eye, a spout of water 15 feet high and the huge dark shape of a whale just breaking the surface, the small dorsal fin on its back identified it as a Fin whale. About 50 feet long they were a fairly common sight to Harvey as they migrated along the coast every summer. They could reach up to 80 feet long and are listed as endangered. “Oh look at that” says Harvey to himself as a smaller spout appears alongside the whale and a 15 foot calf breaks the surface. You guys better get out of here fast if you know what’s good for you thought Harvey, you’ll be in the New York shipping lanes soon. Seeing the whales swimming north with a nonchalant indifference to their natural majesty brought back the rage to Harvey. It reminded him of the utter hypocrisy of the National Marine Fishery Service [NMFS] and the enviro front groups that seemingly ran it.  This summer, Rutgers University teamed up with a few other research groups on an absolutely bogus study to track sea level rise off the Jersey coast. They used a large research vessel equipped with a seismic air gun array that is primarily used for oil exploration. For a month, every 6 to 10 seconds the air gun would go off as it was towed behind the vessel emitting an explosion up to 240 decibels loud. Within ten days of the start of the project 3 dead whales were reported. One 18 foot Minke whale washed up on the beach at Fire Island and was probably an accidental victim of a ship strike. But three days later a dead 40 foot long Fin whale was spotted and photographed by Denis Lovgren of the fishing vessel Kailey Ann on the southern edge of the Mud Hole, and two more boats from the Fishermans Dock Co-op also confirmed the sighting. The body’s location was 20 miles north of the blasting area and due to the southerly wind and currents in that area, exactly where a body would drift to.  Two days later a scallop boat from Barnegat Light, the Miss Manya, spotted a 70 foot floater about 30 miles east of the first carcass. The Miss Manya had a government observer on board and pictures were taken. This body was 25 miles to the north of the blasting area and also where a carcass would drift from the south. Two dead endangered whales, shortly after seismic testing starts and it’s not related? This infuriated Harvey. If a fisherman looked cross-eyed at a marine mammal NMFS would shut down their fishery, yet seismic testing, which any sane person would have to admit has to cause harm to any living animal in its operating vicinity was allowed to continue up and down the coast because it is the primary tool used to explore for oil reserves deep beneath the ocean floor. The government and the oil industry, claim that there is no proof that seismic testing causes any harm to marine life, and claims all the dead marine mammals and stranding’s are just a coincidence.
The oil companies and their government enablers fervently make sure that there is never any money to do any form of research into the effects of seismic testing on marine animals, because they know what they would find. Therefore if there’s no science to prove harm, then it must be okay. Clean Ocean Action, a Jersey based environmental coalition, rallied fishermen and residents to fight the testing and even convinced the N.J. State Department of Environmental Protection to file a lawsuit to stop it. The testing went on anyway. Two dead endangered Fin Whales and the worst Loligo Squid season for the local fishing fleet in memory. Nothing.  You couldn’t find a squid within 50 miles of New Jersey this summer. Coincidentally squid are one of the few species that there is documented evidence that they are harmed by Seismic testing. Research was done in Europe after giant squid washed up on the beaches of Spain during a time when seismic testing was occurring offshore, and their deaths were attributed to seismic testing damaging the soft tissue of their internal organs.  Yet NMFS ignores this, and their partners in crime the greenwashed groups Oceana and the Environmental Defense Frauds simply look the other way. They offered absolutely no help in this fight, just stood by the sideline. Can’t bite the hand that feeds you. Oceana was created  by the PEW Charitable Trusts in the late 1990’s to save the oceans.  But only from the effects of fishing. Oil drilling is fine, and hurts nothing. They push for huge marine protected areas up and down the coasts, where no one can fish and the environment can be saved from the bad fishermen, yet oil and gas drilling would still be allowed.  Has everybody already forgotten the Exxon Valdez, and BP Horizon spills?

Interestingly, Pew Charitable Trusts which is valued around 5 billion dollars, was created by the heirs of Joseph Pew, the founder of Sunoco Oil Company. It’s  board of directors are dominated by Pew family Members, and while the trust itself may not be heavily invested in the oil industry, that doesn’t mean that its  board members aren’t. And they are the ones who steer money into whatever endeavor they think they can profit from. Want to drill for oil on the US east coast? Create a phony overfishing crisis, buy some pseudo-science from the nearest advocacy science whore and campaign finance compromised politicians, and then use the Commerce department to do the rest of the dirty work. Replace anyone in NMFS, the regional fishery science centers, and the regional fishery councils, with willing flunky’s. There are always willing flunky’s. They don’t care how many people they hurt as long as they get paid. I’ll see them in hell thought Harvey. Its gonna be mighty crowded.

Harvey scanned the horizon around him, Gateway National Park on Sandy Hook was on his port side, while a number of large container ships were offshore of him, heading both into and out of the harbor. Directly in front of him a tug and barge was just exiting the Sandy Hook Channel and heading south. Harvey adjusted the auto pilot offshore to pass port to port. Soon he would be entering the Ambrose channel. Looming ever larger, and larger, the massive skyline of the New York Metropolitan area gleamed like the city of Oz in the classic movie. Harvey had timed this trip so that he could catch the incoming tide, and that tide had taken the Dragonlady and was sucking her into the giant mouth of the city. The Dragonlady’s  12/71 Detroit diesel engine was pushing her close to 10 knots, more than 2 knots more than normal, so Harvey backed off the throttle and slowed her down. He had something to do before he reached his destination. He pulled out his computer keyboard, he had managed to set up his boats Vessel Monitoring system to receive the internet and he now navigated his way to UTube. Drawing up his site he typed in this message;  Attention! Live Death at 4 PM EST today. Don’t miss it. Explosions, Fire, and one less mouth to feed. Pull up a seat and grab some popcorn and a beer. Sit back and revile in my misery as I blow myself to bits along with my boat. Contents of an adult nature so don’t let your kids watch.

Harvey smirked despite his despair and misery he still had a semblance of a sense of humor, twisted as it was. Keeping a sharp eye out Harvey looked around, he was putting along at 4 knots now and the south shore of Staten Island was to his left as a few miles ahead the massive structure of the Verrazano bridge grew closer. Coney Island was on his right with Brooklyn beyond.  Harvey never understood how David Cone got an island named after himself, sure he was a great pitcher for the Mets, maybe name a street, but a whole island? Could it be because he pitched for both the Yankees and the Mets? Why then wasn’t there a Dr. K land or Strawberry field island? How come the Bronx wasn’t named Babe Ruth Borough?  Come on Harvey, stay focused you’re drifting off, he thought. Leaving the wheelhouse Harvey went out onto the back deck, “gotta do this now while I have the chance”, he thought. Opening the aluminum hatch to the fish hold he climbed down the ladder. The hold was about 9 feet deep and could carry more than 50,000 pounds of fish, but because of stringent regulations Harvey hardly ever used it anymore. There sitting along the forward water tight bulkhead stood 10 one hundred pound tanks of propane chained together. Along the floor, inside the individual fish pens 20  five gallon gas tanks were scattered around, off to the port side a 12 volt battery was wired to create a spark when he released the button on his pressure release switch. He picked up the switch, attached was 50 feet of wire, plenty enough to allow him to wander around the back deck of the Dragonlady. He held down the button and forcefully taped it in the down position with contractor grade electrical tape. None of that Cheap Walmart crap, my life depends on this tape. Geez, I’m about to blow myself up and I’m thinking about the quality of electrical tape. Harvey approached the propane tanks, he opened the valve of one of them. Out hissed a whitish stream of gas smelling like sulfur and rotten eggs, Harvey turned and climbed the ladder back to the deck carefully holding the pressure switch while feeding out the wire. He laid it down on the deck and closed the hatch. The propane tank would empty and its contents would sink to the bottom of the bilge and collect along the fish hold floor. There it would be trapped by the water tight bulkheads and when Harvey released the button on the pressure switch, Kablooey, everything would blow.

Looking ahead he noticed the Dragonlady slightly heading toward Coney Island. He scrambled forward and changed course back to the deep of the channel, from here on he would have to keep a close watch at the wheel. I’ve never been up the Narrows on a boat before, he thought, been up the Kill Van Kull all the way to the Outerbridge crossing to haul at Garpo Marine, but the outerbridge is like a tinker toy compared to the Verrazano. Approaching the massive support pillars Harvey marveled at the sheer magnitude and engineering genius required to build such a structure. How can men build something so beautiful, yet be so ugly? Clearing the bridge the entrance to the Hudson River beckoned, the magnificent skyline of Manhattan came clearly into view with the new Freedom tower reaching seemingly into the clouds. Around it other massive buildings seemed like dwarfs. On the western shore the Jersey side had suddenly sprouted its own mini Manhattan as business’s crossed the Hudson to avoid the congestion and high New York taxes, while revitalizing Hoboken and Jersey City.

Harvey couldn’t help but remember the twin towers of the world trade center, those massive buildings that stood like a modern day pillars of Hercules welcoming visitors to America. On a clear day the reflection of the sun off their sides could be seen from his fishing grounds in the Mud Hole over 20 miles away. He remembered the smoldering cloud that hung over the city for weeks after 9/11. If I was President, people wouldn’t even remember 9/11 he thought, but they’d never forget 9/12 when I nuked every fucking military base and capitol in the middle east, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Those A-rabs would never fuck with us again.

There’s the Statue of Liberty, it seems small compared to the skyline, but as the Dragonlady drew within a half mile its size became evident. Harvey took the boat out of gear. He could see a small NY Harbor police patrol boat half mile north slowly patrolling. They’re gonna  want to see what I’m doing at some point , he thought. His mind started drifting again, looking at the statue of liberty and what it’s supposed to stand for , he pictured Lady Liberty in chains and shackles with neon billboards emblazoned along its base and crown advertising brand-name corporations and proclaiming; send me your poor uneducated masses, we need more slaves.

Maybe they should replace her if we can’t have freedom and liberty. They should build a 500 foot tall statue of a fireman and the next time someone blows up the city the statue can put out the fire with his giant hose using water from the Hudson River. Back to reality, the Dragonlady was drifting with the tide to the north, Gotta throw the bow anchor, he thought as he picked it up and heaved it over. The rope fed out quickly, 120 feet should be enough, he put a hitch in the cleat, and the boat started to swing around as the anchor caught the bottom. The bow now facing south.  Harvey went out to the back deck to check the viewpoint, he wanted the statue of liberty to be in the background of his video. He had prewired his camera to the computer before he left the dock, all that needed to be done was position the tripod so that it had the best view. Harvey moved the boat forward and then backed down trying to swing the boat out slightly east. Then he threw a second anchor off the stern and tied it off, taking the boat out of gear. The Dragonlady swung back slightly then held steady. Perfect. Repositioning the camera so the statue of liberty would be in the background, Harvey checked his watch. 3:55. Damn, I’m good. He turned on the camera, then went into the wheelhouse, checked the video monitor, on the screen was the North Jersey Skyline with the Statue of Liberty clearly visible. Perfect. He shut down the engine. He noted where he would have to stand, and walked out on the back deck. Turning on the microphone on the camera he picked the pressure release switch off the deck, and walked over to the starboard side and looked at the Statue of Liberty.

From the north the New York Harbor Patrol boat was a quarter mile away and closing in fast. He took out his pocket knife and carefully cut the tape away from the pressure release switch button while keeping the button depressed with his thumb. I’m live now. As he turned to face the camera he heard a beep from his cell phone. “Shit. Who’s that?”  He pulled out his cell and glanced at the screen.  God Damn Henry, I’m busy he thought as he reflexively answered the call.
*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
Downstairs in his basement room Jimmy sat alone, staring at his computer screen drinking a beer, on the table next to him was a bag of popcorn.
“Is that?” he asks out loud. “Shit, that’s Uncle Harvey, he’s gonna blow himself up! Jimmy runs up the stairs yelling; “Mom, Dad, get down here fast, Uncle Harvey’s going to kill himself!

Cindy and Henry come running down the stairs.
“What are you talking about?” Asks Henry.
“Look that’s the Dragonlady, right?” On the computer screen is the picture of the rear deck of a fishing boat. “That’s the gallast and his doors, I’m sure of it”, states Jimmy.
Henry looks closely at the picture on the screen. “What the? Yea, that’s the Dragonlady, and that’s the statue of Liberty in the background, what’s going on? Is this live?”
“Yea”, says Jimmy, “A friend of mine texted me and told me to check this site out, some guys going to blow himself up at 4 o’clock, so I found it on UTube and made myself comfortable. It just went live”.
Henry looks around the room, “Where’s the phone?” he asks.  Jimmy retrieves it and hands it to him. On the computer screen Harvey has now appeared walking towards the starboard gunnel and staring at the statue of Liberty, he seems to be doing something with his hands, but they cannot see what it is. Henry franticly punches in Harvey’s cell phone number, and waits for the phone to ring. On screen Harvey turns to face the camera, then reaches in his pants pocket with his right hand, a faint voice is heard from the computer; “Shit, who’s that?” He looks at the phone, and answers it. “Henry, I don’t have time to talk right now, I’m in the middle of something really important. Love ya”.

“Harvey, I’m watching you on the computer. Don’t do what I think you’re planning on doing”. Harvey turns towards the Statue of Liberty, and sees the Harbor Patrol boat now only 50 feet away from him, he turns back to the camera and speaks.
“Hi, I’m Harvey Haddock and …” His  speech is interrupted by the sound of a loudspeaker from the patrol boat. “Dragonlady, this is a non-anchorage area. Immediately lift your anchors and vacate the area”.
“Shit” says Harvey to the camera, “Can’t a person blow himself up without constantly being bothered? Excuse me.” He turns back to the patrol boat and beckons them closer with his right hand, which is still holding his cell phone, realizing that Henry is still on the line, he speaks into it. “Henry, I’m sorry but it’s too late. I’ve been dead for years. I love you, and your family, you’ve been great to me, gotta go, the cops are here”. He drops the phone over the side.
“Stop! That’s close enough, I have a bomb.” He’s yells to the patrolman on the boat’s deck. The patrol boat is about 25 feet long with a small cabin that’s opened in the back, where a second patrolman is manning the controls.  Harvey holds up his left hand with the pressure control switch, both patrolmen draw their pistols, and Harvey raises his right hand up in the air.
“Don’t shoot or you’ll both die, and I don’t want to hurt anyone. I just want to blow up this boat so the bank can’t have it. I’m holding a pressure release switch which is rigged up to one thousand pounds of propane, and one hundred gallons of gas. When I release the button it all blows. If you shoot me, you will die, so I am asking that you back off at least two hundred yards. Tell the Coast Guard and the rest of your forces what I have here. All I want is fifteen minutes. Then you can clean up the mess. Nobody will get hurt. I’m just going to blow up the boat, don’t try to be a hero or your wives, if you have any, will be widows”.
The two patrolmen are talking to each other, still with their guns drawn, the Captain reaches for the radio microphone and talks into it. The other patrolman yells to Harvey; “Sir you don’t have to do this. It can’t be that bad. Nothing can be that bad”.

Harvey holds the switch higher. “Yes it can. Now son, please, you and your buddy back up, turn around and keep at least a two hundred yard security zone around the boat. I don’t know how big an explosion this will be but there’s sure to be some flying debris”. The patrolmen talk to each other, and the Captain puts the boat in gear and slowly backs up, and then turns around  heading east away from the boat. Harvey says out loud, “That’s right, back off”.
On the Dragonlady’s portside two Coast Guard vessels are closing in, about a quarter mile away they stop, then slowly, one turns north, while the other heads south. Back at Henry’s they have been watching the events unfold on the computer screen’
“Damn it. I gave Harvey two of those propane bottles. I thought he was scrapping them”, says Henry.
Cindy asks; “Do you think he’s going to do it?”

“Yea”, answers Henry. “He’s been so depressed since Candy died, there’s no talking him down. The foreclosure’s the last straw. He’s a dead man walking”.
Jimmy puts down the beer. He’s near tears.  “I can’t watch this. Poor Uncle Harvey. I can’t believe it’s him, and here I had a beer and popcorn to watch some poor smuck blow himself up”.
“Come on upstairs Jimmy. I don’t want to watch this either” says Cindy as she grabs his hand. “ Are you coming Harvey?”
“No, I’m staying here. If I can’t be with him physically, I’m going to be as close as I can. Maybe a miracle will happen”.

Harvey addresses the camera again; “Hi, I’m Harvey Haddock and in a few minutes I’m going to blow up my 75 foot fishing boat and myself with it. If you didn’t hear the conversation that I just had with the NYPD, I informed them that my boat the Dragonlady is rigged with one thousand pounds of propane and one hundred gallons of gasoline. I am holding a pressure release switch and it all blows when I take my finger off the button. I have asked for a minimum two hundred yard security zone around the boat, so that nobody gets hurt. I don’t want to hurt anybody”.

“I just want to make a point. I have been fishing since I was a teenager, forty years now, and it’s a damn hard job, both physically and mentally. At the end of everyday though, I knew that I had done an honest day’s work. I didn’t steal or take advantage of people with legal mumbo-jumbo to enrich myself. I produced food to feed people, and I created money by harvesting a renewable natural resource for the benefit of mankind, unlike the Wall Street crooks who play three card Monty with unsuspecting shareholders. I’ve owned the Dragonlady for 30 years now and thanks to the federal government’s intentional destruction of the small family fisherman, I am about to lose it to the bank, they have foreclosed my mortgage.  In a few minutes they can pick up the pieces. I’ve worked my ass off all my life, and a bunch of corporate crooks and government cronies, have taken everything I’ve owned, leaving me broke and destitute. I’ve lost my wife, my house, and now my boat. I’m too old to start over, and refuse to accept any handout from those crooks in Washington. Don’t get me wrong, I love my Country, I just hate my government and what it has become. So before I die, I want to poke a stick in the eye of those bastards one more time”.

“In the last twenty five years the National marine Fisheries Service has had an unwritten policy of destroying both commercial and recreational fishermen, simply because we are in the way. We are in the way of the big oil, gas and wind energy corporations that want to take over the ocean bottom where we have fished since before there was a U.S. of A.  NMFS was not originally created to destroy fisherman, they were supposed to protect and promote them. But because a few years after its creation they were placed under the control of the Commerce department, which is the biggest den of thieves in the country, NMFS policy changed from protect and promote, to destroy and remove, to make way for their oil company masters. This strategy did two things, it removed eyes from the water, and reduces liability when the inevitable oil spill occurs, causing massive environmental and economic damage”.

Harvey continues; “NMFS management policies have now bankrupted two thirds of the traditional New England groundfish fleet while leaving two thirds of their annual fishery allocations untouched due to onerous regulations. It’s not fish that are endangered, its fishermen. Environmental front groups have been created and funded by multinational corporations, and foundations, with the express intent of destroying the fishing industry with phony non peer reviewed advocacy science and by pressuring congress to change the very act that created NMFS. Their strategy has worked, and now just like the family farmer, fishermen are rapidly disappearing and being replaced by large corporate entities who control the fishery allocations.”

At his house Henry is in tears listening to his brother. “You tell them Harvey. Tell the fucking truth so everybody knows what’s happening, they won’t hear it in the Newspaper’s or TV”.
On the screen Harvey’s on a roll. “The America I grew up with no longer exists. It has been replaced, taken over completely by a bunch of greedy soulless conmen masquerading as C.E.O.’s and politicians. The U.S. government no longer works as intended with three distinct branches to provide checks and balances to protect the rights granted us by the original Constitution and Bill of Rights. Now thanks to uncontrolled corporate campaign contributions it works solely for the benefit of multinational corporate profits. Both political parties refuse to compromise on their opposing viewpoints and policies, leaving the country in a nonfunctioning stalemate. Illegal immigrates from overpopulated third world countries flood our borders and destroy our historical population demographics, ending up on the public dole, and bankrupting Social Security. Both parties claim to want to find solutions, but the republicans refuse to act, because their corporate masters want that cheap slave labor work force to keep the price of labor down. While the Democrats figure let’s let them all in and give them money, they’ll be sure to vote for us.  Clearly America is broken. I said it before, I love my Country. I just hate my government. And I have an idea about how to change it”.

“The Soviet Union collapsed by a peaceful people power revolution. We can do the same by a ballot box revolution. We can vote the whores out of office. But how?  The Democratic and Republican parties so monopolize the election process that third party candidates have no chance of winning any major office.  Also any new idea candidate is systematically and purposely destroyed by the corporate and government controlled news media that profits from the status quo. Now when you vote, you’re not voting for a candidate, but against someone you perceive as worse. There is a reason that None of the above is not on our ballots. It would win every election. But where can you find a candidate that would be beyond scandal, universally admired, and stands for everything good about America? How can you tell the present government they are no longer wanted? That you the American public want the USA to return to its true roots of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of

Happiness for all, as our founding fathers so elegantly stated in our constitution”.  Harvey pauses and carefully switches the pressure release switch from his left to right hand. “My hands cramping, Oops almost blew myself up”, he says as he laughs nervously.

“The answer is simple, use the write in feature on the ballot and write in the name of the one person that every man, woman, and child in our country loves and respects, George Washington. The Father of our country. This would be a ballot box revolution that would cause a Constitutional crisis if he won the election. After all he’s been dead for over two hundred years, but it would send a message to Washington that we have had enough of the self-serving hypocritical whores who have been running our country. Write in George Washington for President, Senator, Congressman, and Governor, let’s see what happens then. Just remember, freedom doesn’t come easily, so be ready for a fight, these power hungry bastards will not let go easily. That’s all. Take my message to heart. Sorry if I bored you with my rant. You won’t be hearing from me anymore. Time to die”.

Harvey holds up his hand to the camera and removes his thumb from the button. He feels a vibration under his feet, suddenly the hatch to the fish hold rockets upwards, followed by a huge ball of flame. The deck rips open, tearing Harvey’s body to pieces and throwing flaming debris in every direction. What remains of the shattered hull sinks within a minute, leaving a large patch of flaming debris on the water’s surface as the only evidence a boat had once been there.

Early last summer the fishing industry lost one of their loudest voices from the early years of federally managed fisheries when Gosta Lovgren of Lavallette New Jersey passed away less than two months after his wife of 55 years, Carol, died. He was born December 9 th 1938 and lived in Ocean County all his life. Affectionately known as “Swede” he was one of the first fishermen to understand the politics of the fishing industry and knew that if the industry did not become aware of, and fight, what was going to happen to them through management measures supposedly to save the fish, then they would be doomed. Swede was the leading industry voice in the fight against sludge dumping in the New York Bight and was the first person to understand and push for more involvement in fisheries from the New Jersey Farm Bureau, American Farm Bureau and the Department of Agriculture. His death was not widely reported as it happened in the middle of the Covid crisis, and he didn’t deserve to have passed away without the recognition he warranted.

Gosta started fishing with his dad in the Surf Clam fishery in 1960 and worked there until the Mid-Atlantic Council created their first fishery management plan and promptly put over 100 boats out of business including him. By that time, he owned his own Dock and business called Lovgren Enterprises located on Channel drive in Point Pleasant Beach, where he docked his 70 year old converted oyster schooner, the Carollelle. Kicked out of the clam industry, he switched his boat and dock over to successfully enter the booming New Jersey Whiting fishery, with his dock handling the landings of half a dozen boats daily and ignoring the local industry trip limits that stabilized the market. From the 1970’s thru the 1980’s when the media in New Jersey covered a fishing industry story, they always sought out Swede’s opinion, as while his language was colorful, he was very knowledgeable, insightful, and opinionated. [plus, he was never wrong, a family trait].

In 1976 the U.S. suffered what was, at the time the worst ecological disaster in our history with the great ocean kill in the New York Bight that covered hundreds of square miles of ocean bottom from New York City down to Atlantic city, and extended forty miles offshore. Every living bottom creature in the area died, with the Surf and Quahog populations being decimated, along with Lobsters and crabs, while most fish could swim away from the disaster. Swede recognized early on from the signs he was seeing in his dredges and the observations of other clammers that there was a serious unknown problem taking place and it probably had something to do with the huge sludge dump site located about fifteen miles east of Long Branch where millions of gallons of untreated sewerage was dumped every day. He hired a diver to get a sample of the bottom water near a local wreck and brought it to a meeting that had been arranged between a few local fishermen, the head of the regional EPA, and Congressman Jim Howard. Presenting the bottle to them he told the EPA head and the Congressman that they were not doing their job very well, in language that may not be suitable for all audiences. He continued this battle until it was won, over ten years later.

After passage of the Magnuson Act and the beginnings of fishery management plans Gosta knew that our industry needed to organize and he became involved in the New Jersey Farm Bureau, and actively encouraged local fishermen to join. Within a few years Gosta was the Ocean County Farm Bureau President, and served on the Board of Directors of the New Jersey Farm Bureau. He used his position to push fisheries issues into the mainstream of NJFB policies hoping eventually to get national involvement with the American Farm Bureau and their four million members. He was honored with the Art West distinguished service to the New Jersey Farm Bureau award in 1985 for his efforts. Swede recognized early on that the commercial fishing industry had absolutely no one in power that cared about them, and saw the agricultural community as brothers who faced similar problems but had much more support nationwide than fishermen. Since both industry’s harvested food, teaming up should be a no brainer, but politics is a complicated thing and agriculture had their own ideas about fish production, namely aquaculture, so his efforts nationwide were fruitless at that time, but still continue through the efforts of the NJFB.

In 1985, after being kicked out of the surf clam industry, fighting NMFS over two written violations, and seeing the authoritarian ruthlessness of an NMFS administrative law judge, Swede took out a full two-page ad in the National Fisherman magazine issue from May 1985 confronting the actions
of NMFS and the fishery management system they set up. When he finished writing the piece, he promptly suffered a massive stroke and almost died. He was left with paralysis on his left side, and his active involvement in fishing was ended. He had to sell his boat and the dock and concentrated on
rehabbing his body with a strenuous physical regimen that helped him regain some of his functions. He spent much time after the creation of the internet trying to beat the stock market, before creating his own award-winning website, Swede’s Dock, which covered all types of various issues, but mostly concerned fishing. Here he wrote many opinion pieces on fishing that are still relevant today. The website is still online, with an incredible amount of fishing information on fishery management, science, and even back yard ponds. In 2000 Gosta became a published author with his 178-page book, the “Ponder’s Bible, all you need to know to build and maintain your own pond”. It is still available on Amazon.

From Nils Stolpe; I knew Swede for almost all my professional career in fisheries. My dealings with him started when I was attempting to do fisheries support and development work for the New Jersey Department of Agriculture, a whole ‘nother story that I won’t get into here. At the time he was
fairly contemptuous of most of the bureaucrats, both federal and state, that were involved in [or were pretending to be involved in] fisheries, and he maintained a lot of that contempt for as long as I knew him. Fortunately, my life as a bureaucrat lasted for somewhat less than a decade, and I like to think that in the subsequent years some of his contempt for me became a limited bit of grudging respect. But he was still Swede, and while it took me quite awhile to figure it all out, I came to see that his contempt for the huge, and many of us would argue just about completely ineffectual-government fisheries bureaucracy was spot on. In essence his distrust of the lions share of fisheries bureaucrats-aka “fishcrats” thanks to a long running column in National Fisherman- was rooted in the real world and was about as prescient as any commercial fishing advocate’s predictions involving the ongoing demise of the commercial fishing industry in the United States. Though I don’t know for how long it will be there, parts
of Swede’s website, “Swede’s Dock”, is still available at http://www.exit109.com/~gosta/. While some of it will probably offend some folks, and other portions are definitely controversial, if you are interested in fisheries management, it is certainly worth a visit or ten.

By Jim Lovgren and Nils Stolpe

On June 8 ,2022, the Biden administration announced its newest attack on American small businessmen by declaring the Hudson Canyon region as a protected marine sanctuary. The Hudson canyon is the largest and deepest canyon on the US east coast, about the size of the Grand Canyon. It was created by the outflow of the Hudson River over the course of millions of years and because it is one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems on the east coast, it is also one of the best fishing grounds. The proposed marine sanctuary would devastate multiple different fisheries that utilize
different gear types and would create absolutely no benefit to our nation.

In a non-sensible announcement of Biden’s plan, NOAA Administrator Richard Spinrad, joyously proclaimed that “A sanctuary near one of the most densely populated areas of the Northeast U.S. would connect diverse communities across the region to the ocean and the canyon in new and different ways”. This “woke” speak will make all the NGO’s that pushed this job destroying effort, feel good about themselves, aside from that, no one will benefit in the least from this action. The closest part of this sanctuary is about sixty miles offshore, with some of the region
being over 100 miles offshore, so who exactly is going to see this wonderful sanctuary, especially with the present price of fuel? How many people have visited the North-East Sea mount national monument as sightseers since its creation during the Obama years? I’m pretty sure the answer is zero. But we know that hundreds of fishermen lost their jobs from it, and access to many valuable fish species were taken away from fishermen and the consumers who buy fresh fish, and have to pay more, as less product results in higher prices. What in the name of wokeness does “would connect diverse communities across the region to the ocean and the canyon in new and different ways” mean? I can imagine a promo poster for the sanctuary picturing a rainbow stretching from the New York city skyline out to the great Hudson area where a whale is seen basking in the glory of a sea of windmills.

The only thing that this proposal will connect is one huge, closed area to another, the Hudson north wind area, with the Hudson Canyon Marine Sanctuary. This means that a huge amount of historical fishing grounds will become unfishable, either because in the case of the Hudson sanctuary,
fishing of all types will be prohibited, within the adjacent windfarm, not only will fishing be prohibited, but the marine environment will be attacked by mammoth steel and fiberglass structures emitting loud noises and electrical fields. You see, it is the same Non-Governmental Organizations that are shoving windfarms down our throats for the benefit of foreign companies, that are pushing for this marine protected area. Perhaps they realize that their windmill scam has been exposed for not only being absurdly expensive but as having very negative effects on the marine ecosystem., so to relieve their guilt, they think they can mitigate their causing the extinction of the Northern Right Whale by the thousands of windmills they plan on putting in their migratory path, by also making commercial fishermen extinct.

So, lets get something straight about the Hudson Canyon area and its pristine wilderness we have to protect, trawlers have been working the bottom there down to two hundred fathoms for close to one hundred years now. I was a participant in the Hudson canyon lobster trawl fishery that existed
from the 1950’s to 1980, and reached from seventy fathoms on the east side down to over two hundred fathoms on the west side. There isn’t a square inch of the Hudson bottom that hasn’t been touched by fishing gear of some type, so why are we closing down an area that is one of the most productive fishing areas on the east coast? Only in the minds of Democratic Marxists can it be imagined as being a good thing to starve people, whether its of food, or energy, so they can save the world from a controversial eco-disaster that may not exist, [while their Wall Street handlers reap the financial benefits]. Meanwhile the starry eyed Non-Governmental Organization employees who lobby to stop the production of multiple sustainably managed fisheries thus decreasing the world food supply in a time of dire need thanks to the Russia Ukraine war and the resultant shut off of Ukraine’s grain exports into the world market, gleefully celebrate this action. Why? Because they are immune to rational thought and the consequences of certain actions. Ideology is the only thing they understand, human suffering? Who cares, as long as it’s not me.

What’s worse, slowly reducing our country’s fossil fuel dependence and keeping our economy strong and powerful, or closing down oil and gas drilling causing a world-wide shortage and astronomical fuel prices? Let’s not forget that those outrageous prices were most beneficial to our enemies, Russia, Iran, and Venezuela, who we are now begging to produce more oil. That huge surge of money emboldened Putin to invade Ukraine and bring the world to the edge of Armageddon, while the democratic Marxists who caused all this, swing from a rainbow drinking chardonnay out of crystal glasses. While we may think that the next world war will be fought over energy, it’s just as likely to be fought over food, and we need to produce as much as we can. Closing one of the best fishing grounds on the east coast will only exacerbate the worlds food shortage, but don’t worry, you can always use one of the thousands of three hundred foot long unrecyclable windmill blades to chew on.

With the NOAA announcement from Spinrad the fishing industry knows where they stand. NOAA will do absolutely nothing to stop the destruction of this country’s oldest industry, the very industry that the National Marine Fishery Service was created to protect, promote, and preserve, over forty-five years ago, is, in Orwellian fashion being destroyed by their protector, who dreams of rainbows, and unicorns.

How many different fisheries are going to be affected by a Hudson Canyon Closure? Everyone of them. When you close large areas to fishing, that causes effort shifts to other areas, and other fisheries seemingly unrelated to the first become affected by new entrants pushed out of their old grounds. These new entrants put more pressure on these other fishermen’s historical fisheries, sometimes at the detriment of all the fishermen, and sometimes by the collapse of the stock that can’t handle the added pressure, complicated by a management system unable to adjust to the effort shift.

These are the major trawl fisheries that are presently pursued in the proposed Hudson Marine Sanctuary, Summer Flounder, Scup, Black Sea Bass, Loligo Squid, Illex squid, Whiting, Mackerel,Butterfish, and Monkfish. Potters trap Jonah crabs, red crabs and lobster, while longline fishermen catch Tilefish in the bottom depths, and the pelagic longline fishery targets Tuna’s and Swordfish. Scallop vessels fish down to forty-five fathoms and also stand to lose more bottom. For what? What is the benefit to our nation? That is the question, and the answer is nothing. The Hudson Marine Sanctuary is a wet dream of the progressive left that is just another attempt at destroying our world as we know it. If all the wind farms that are proposed for the US east coast are built, that in itself would create marine sanctuary’s covering one third of the continental shelf. Isn’t that enough? Why not just ban fishing altogether, so we can slowly starve to death, which is so much better than having Joe accidentally push the red self-destruct button.

We are living in a dangerous time where we are closer then ever to nuclear oblivion and the extinction of most of the world, thanks to foolish policies that deny the reality of one action that had an equal and opposite reaction. The Biden administration decided that it was a good idea to cut back the
production of fossil fuels to save the world from global warming, totally ignoring the fact that China and India are now producing half the worlds greenhouse gases, and they are increasing the production of coal burning plants every year. Our slowdown in fossil fuel production doubled the price of oil before Putin’s invasion, and the reckless spending caused inflation unseen seen the Jimmy Carter years. This all happened before the Russian invasion, which took place because Putin knew he was dealing with a senile old man, and was flush with the billions in oil profits Biden’s policy produced for him. Now both Putin and Biden have their finger on the button and one little miscalculation and no one will remember global warming. Nuclear war is real and the effects will be mass extinction level. Ukraine’s agricultural production will be substantially reduced for years thanks to this war, which means there will be a global shortage of food grains. Ukraine is not only one of the largest food exporters in the world, but they have
massive oil and gas reserves in the Donbas region which Putin is intent on stealing. Shutting down theUS commercial fishing fleet will only increase the world’s food production problem. We cannot afford to live in a bubble and pretend that actions don’t have consequences, each little drop in food production brings us closer to world war.

Jim Lovgren

Last week at the Atlantic States Marine Fishery Commission/ Mid Atlantic Fishery Management Council joint meeting these two management bodies voted to steal millions of dollars from the commercial fishing industry by reallocating historical quota from the commercial sector to the recreational sector. The two groups in charge of the management of Scup, Black Sea Bass and Summer Flounder voted to change the historic quotas of these species that were developed in the creation of their original management plan in the early 1990’s and used data from the 1980’s time period. Quota allocation is always a controversial issue whether it is within a fishery sector, [state by state quota] or between commercial and recreational interests. There always seems to be someone dissatisfied with the result. In regard to these three demersal species, the recreational sector was never satisfied with the results of the real data and have tried for over 25 years to change the allocations in their favor.

They finally accomplished their goal, and in the process stole over $750,000 annually worth of fish from the commercial industry, while rendering worthless the recently successful years long fight of a number of states to reallocate commercial quota in the Fluke and Black Sea Bass fisheries. Those fish were just given to the recreational industry. The change in percentage of quota for these species is as follows.

Summer Flounder went from a 60/40 commercial/ recreational split to 55/45 amounting to roughly 100,000 pounds of fish annually, [based on 20-million-pound combined coastwide quota]. With an average dockside price of $3.00 a pound, that is a loss of $300,000. each year for the commercial
industry.

The Scup quota went from a 78/22 commercial/recreational split to a 65/35 split amounting to a loss of about 330,000 pounds of scup annually [based on a 26.5-million-pound combined coast wide quota]. With an average dockside price of .75 cents a pound this is a loss of $250,000 each year for the commercial industry.

The Black Sea Bass quota went from a 49/51 commercial/recreational split to a 45/55 split amounting to a loss of 50,000 pounds of fish annually, [based on a 12.5-million-pound combined coast wide quota]. With an average dockside price of $4.25 a pound, this is a loss of $212,000 each year for the commercial fishermen who depend on them.

This amendment, if approved by the commerce secretary would take over $750,000 a year annually from the commercial sector and give it to the recreational sector, which has a terrible track record of staying within their annual quota allocations of many species, not just these three. I sympathize with the recreational industry because their landings [or catch], data has been crap since the beginnings of management. The original data collection through the MRFS system was deservedly criticized for its wildly inaccurate estimates throughout its history, so much so that NMFS eventually saw
the need to end it amid the creation of a new improved data collection system called MRIP. This cost millions of dollars to create and is just as useless as the system it replaced. After its implementation around 2018 the recreational industry was aghast at the results which showed them overfishing their quota’s even more than previously thought. So, in order to turn lemons into lemonade the ASMFC and its state directors set to work to address this issue. Obviously if the recs can’t stay within their quota’s, then they must need more fish, and the only place to take it, is the commercial industry. Instead of doing the intelligent thing by reducing the recreational size limits so that they can reduce discard mortality by converting them into landings. The important point to remember here is that the ASMFC’s primary funding source is SK money which is derived from a tax on fishing tackle, fuel and other items primarily coming from the recreational industry. State directors, who sit on both the ASMFC board, and the MAFMC know that they cannot kill the goose that lays the golden egg, so they have a vested interest in making sure that the recreational industry stays viable. Some of them are outright hostile to the commercial industry, because they don’t have much of one in some states.

In regard to this amendment, it seems that the ASMFC has decided that since they simply have no idea how many fish are caught by the recreational industry, then by using the best science available, the new MRIP data, [which claims recreational catch is much greater than they thought it was], the only way to address the problem is to steal quota from the commercial side. So, by using the new MRIP data they figured if it presently shows so much more recreational fishing now, than they thought there was, [no matter how erroneous it may be], then the recreational catch must have been way more than they thought it was in the past, giving them the pretext to change historical landings so they can justify this resource steal. This will not solve the problem; the recs will still overfish as long as any type of telephone or letter questionnaire is being used as the primary source of data collection. This type of survey is a total waste of taxpayer dollars and about as accurate as guessing how many jellybeans are in a five-gallon jar. The only way to get accurate catch data for recreational fishermen is by dock intercept where the actual fish can be observed and catch data such as how many anglers are on their boats, what type of gear did they use, what were they targeting, etc. All else is simply conjecture. Since millions of dollars have been spent creating this great new improvement of the old MRFS collection system it seems that nobody in management wants to admit that MRIP is no better than MRFS, maybe worse. But it has served its purpose for the state directors who masterminded the steal. I attended two scoping hearings in New Jersey and asked the audience at both of them [and they were predominately recreational fishermen] if anybody in the room thought that the new MRIP data was accurate. No one raised their hand. I then asked if anybody thought the data was better than the old MRFS data, once again no one raised their hand. So, management has a real credibility problem with their recreational catch data, and the millions spent on the new collection system seems to be a waste of time and money that won’t be corrected by reallocating fish from the commercial sector. I think currently the most accurate recreational catch data comes from VTR’s from party/charter boats, it may not be perfect, but it is probably 90% accurate. Captains have no way of knowing if there is an under- cover enforcement agent on board their vessel, and they also know that accurate data is a good thing
for the industry as a whole. The Northeast Fishery Science Center has to stop relying on mathematical equations for their science and get out into the real world and get accurate data collection from the only accurate source, dockside intercepts. Stop deceiving yourselves and the public. Judging by the public comments at the scoping meetings, they’re not fooled. Surprisingly, I also heard very few recreational fishermen saying that they thought taking commercial quota was the answer to their problem. It should be pointed out that due to covid restrictions, the legally required public hearings, [which are different then scoping hearings] could not be held in person, and were done virtually, causing way less participation in the management process.

Multiple people pointed out that the recreational industry has been in a downward participation spiral for 20 years now, with about half the participation rate of the general public as there was in the 1990’s, which leads to the obvious question, with such minimal bag limits and large minimum sizes and half the fishermen as there used to be, how can they possibly be catching more fish now then years ago? New Jersey alone has lost over 50,000 registered boats in the last fifteen years. Those people are not going out on party boats now, that fleet is almost extinct, so who’s catching all these supposed fish that MRIP claims is being caught? If the general fishing public does not believe the MRIP data is accurate and that it overestimates their catch, then it’s hard to see how that data could then be used to go back in time and claim that the data from the 80’s underestimated recreational catch and use that to justify a resource steal. Besides being ashamed of themselves for approving this plan, the council and Commission should reevaluate recreational data collection and devise a new system that uses only VTR and dock intercept data. Nothing else will ever be accurate and MRIP data will never gain the confidence of the fishing public.

There is one other incredibly serious issue with this, as yet not finally approved allocation Amendment. This present amendment, which has serious financial implications to the commercial fishing industry, had to go through a full amendment process involving many hearings, and meetings
taking over two years from start to finish. That is because reallocation of fish stocks is a serious matter and should not be done expeditiously, especially when it involves commercial/recreational shares and the ASMFC is involved. This allocation amendment approved by the ASMFC and the MAFMC includes changing the requirement to revise quota reallocation issues from only being able to use a full-blown Amendment, to allowing a change of quota using only a framework, which legally only requires Two council meetings. {less than 90 days]. Public hearings and involvement are reduced to a minimum and it gives the management bodies the right to steal for their pet sector. {Sounds like Déjà vu to me].

There will still be time to voice your opinion on this matter to GARFO but the start of the comment period has not yet been announced.

Thanks, Jim Lovgren

© 2021 Nils E. Stolpe – FishNet USA/ April 12. 2019

Demand for undersea cables will only grow as more businesses rely on cloud computing services. And technology expected around the corner, like more powerful artificial intelligence and driverless cars, will all require fast data speeds as well. Areas that didn’t have internet are now getting access, with the United Nations reporting that for the first time more than half the global population is now online.

“This is a huge part of the infrastructure that’s making that happen,” said Debbie Brask, the vice president at SubCom, who is managing the Google project. “All of that data is going in the undersea cables.” (How the Internet Travels Across Oceans, Adam Striano, NY Times, 03/10/2019, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/03/10/technology/internet-cables-oceans.html)

I have known Captain Jim Lovgren for most of thirty years. I have worked with him on a number of issues and have grown to respect both his intelligence and his ability to get to the heart of a problem without getting sidetracked by what are generally minor distractions. Based on this I have no compunctions about strongly recommending that you read the piece that he wrote and Borehead has published on his website http://www.FISHERYNATION.com titled, “Its Time For A Fishing Industry Buy Out By Offshore Wind” >click to read<, (and while I’m at it I’ll also recommend that if you don’t already you should immediately subscribe to FisheryNation as well. Borehead publishes material that, while it is sometimes controversial, is generally on target and not reflective of the overly-cautious  perspective that seems to be plaguing other commercial fisheries publications.)

If you follow what I write in FishNet-USA, you know that I have been concerned about the potential impacts of wind power development on our coastal waters, and of the critters that you catch that live in those waters, for years. That concern is based on a significant amount of research done by extremely credible scientists, but is too often ignored by bureaucrats, by politicians and by the so-called environmentalists who are seemingly blinded by the “something for nothing” allure of wind power. This is exacerbated by the sense of impending doom that has been part and parcel of what is largely a Chicken Little-like approach of the national print, broadcast and social media outlets to climate change.

And, unfortunately, I see the struggle that both recreational and commercial fishermen are facing with myriad huge windmills planned in our coastal waters as only the tip of the iceberg.

The oceans have been “up for grabs” for generations, but the current crop of grabbers are a passel of high tech billionaires with unimaginable wealth and power who recognize the inherent technological, sociological and economic limitations of land-based and space-based telecom expansion.

But the oceans are out there, they offer unsurpassed access to the major population centers that are and will continue to be the focus of telecommunications growth, and the only other groups that have major claims upon their use are fishermen (and the world’s navies, but unlike most of our elected officials, at least for now they are beyond the reach of Silicon Valley). And as an aside, guess where the major funding of efforts to delegitimize our claims has come from.

And don’t forget the allure of free cooling. All of that cold water just waiting for our modern robber barons to put it to use. And aquaculture. And kelp farming. And the list goes on and on.

So, if you are looking for a comfortable future in commercial fishing take Jim Lovgren’s words seriously. Consider them, discuss them with your colleagues and accept the fact that, at least in some peoples’ opinion the camel has already gotten its nose in the tent and the rest of him is going to soon follow. But don’t forget that wind power is just a starting point. Over 70% of the earth’s area is covered by oceans. Unutilized (except for fishing) from time immemorial, their many potentialities have been “discovered” by the huge money folks, they are on the cusp of over-exploitation, and your future could easily become a casualty.

For a bit more depth on this issue, see my “Fish Wars” or a Regime Shift in Ocean Governance? On the Fishery Nation site (https://fisherynation.com/fish-wars-or-a-regime-shift-in-ocean-governance). For a comprehensive though somewhat dated look at the world of submarine cables see How the Internet works: Submarine fiber, brains in jars, and coaxial cables – A deep dive into Internet infrastructure, plus a rare visit to a subsea cable landing site in the 5/26/2016 edition of Ars Technica by Bob Dormon https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/05/how-the-internet-works-submarine-cables-data-centres-last-mile/. 

If Offshore wind farm companies want the commercial fishing industry to support the construction of massive wind farms on their long time historical fishing grounds, then those companies must offer a vessel buy out option to fishermen before they are put out of business by these same wind developers. Commercial fishermen have become the new Native Americans, pushed off of their long time fishing grounds by multinational corporate invaders. Just like our government allowed the Soviet Union to rape the richest fisheries in the world on Georges Bank, our government is now allowing new foreign investors posing as environmental saviors to simply come in and force the local fishermen to abandon their historic fishing grounds in their wake. Slowly but surely, just as the US justified its genocide of the native Indian population by the term Manifest Destiny, Commercial fishermen are facing the same fate as our native Americans by the Green New Deal. To be driven to extinction, by promises and lies on top of deceptions and soon the loss of their fishing grounds. History is repeating itself, and the weaker will fall prey to the stronger. Commercial fishermen have no political power, their greatest strength is their independence, which is also their fatal flaw. Fishermen are fishermen because they want to be, they like being at sea away from the BS of ordinary life, part of their job should include caring about their industry, but it doesn’t. Somebody else can do that. And that in a nut shell is why these foreign companies can run roughshod over the oldest industry in the country.

The problem the Indians had is that they did not believe anybody could own land, which made it easy to chase and bully them off of the land they had lived on for centuries, while promising them a better future at some other location. That is now the same problem that the US fishing industry faces, they are being chased away from historic fishing grounds by a larger, more powerful invader intent on taking over all of the prime ocean bottom on the continental shelf, fishing industry and marine environment be damned. When European settlers came to America they sold and divided property, anybody could buy land, as long as they could afford to buy it. That’s exactly how it still is, anybody can own the land. But nobody has ever owned the ocean, beyond a country’s territorial rights, so fishermen fishing the same grounds for generations and generations have never been allowed to buy that ocean acreage. Our multi-generational lifetimes on the ocean apparently mean nothing to the US government, or foreign windmill companies. We are just in the way of progress. Fishermen do not own the ocean, because they were never allowed to buy the ocean, but some multinational con men can come waving wads of money around and our leaders bend over backwards to help them along with their scheme, knowing full well that we will all pay through higher electricity rates.

We are going to create thousands of good paying union jobs they claim, while most of the windmills are built in Europe and just shipped here for assembly. Believe me the windfarm companies know they are killing the fishing industry, and it is their intention to completely ignore any of our
complaints, because that is what they did in Europe. [Where by the way those Northern country’s that heavily invested in offshore wind now have the most expensive electricity in the developed world, excluding islands]. I don’t know if anybody in our present government cares about the fate of the East Coast fishing industry, we have been so villainized by the environmental industry over the last few decades. But some in our government did care a little about the fate of the Indians from which they stole their land and lives, and gave them their own land. They attempted to address the horrible fate they inflicted on the native Americans. Fishermen have been offered nothing. Except the loss of historic fishing grounds that are vital to their survival. So those thousands of good paying union jobs being promised? They are negated by the destruction of the commercial fishing industry and its related infrastructure. For each commercial fisherman there are 6 to 7 other people employed down the supply line. The windfarms will eventually destroy some communities that are dependent on fishing, and after the true cost of the electric produced by these wind factories is passed on to the ratepayers, they will all flee. Many are already doing that because of high taxes, just wait a few years because offshore wind is the biggest tax increase in history.

While the Biden administration is busy throwing billions of dollars to people who aren’t even citizens, how about throwing a few billion to the commercial fishermen that your green new deal is about to destroy. If multi national corporations are allowed to just prance right into our territorial
waters and take them over from the local fishermen leaving them bankrupt and out of work, then the federal government ought to own up to the damage it is creating to the fishing industry and create a voluntary buy out program, jointly financed by them and of course the Windmill companies including their investors. Vessel buy out programs have been used in the North east before, about 20 years ago there was a 300 million dollar buy out of groundfish vessels, so it can be done. The full of Wind companies will argue that there are still plenty of places for fishermen to fish but even the most intellectually challenged person would have to admit after looking at a chart showing the size and locations of the proposed farms that there will not be much fishing grounds left. That means that fishermen will all be forced into a few postage stamp sized areas and fight it out to make a tow, leading to loss of income to all and eventually bankruptcy of the fleet. By creating a voluntary buy out program, fishermen can opt to sell their vessel and permits to whatever sponsoring group is in charge of the program, and at least have something besides bankruptcy to show for their generations of work feeding our nation. The vessel and permits will be permanently retired thus reducing the amount of effort that can be put into the remaining fishing grounds. Meanwhile those that choose to remain would be the beneficiaries of reduced competition and would probably see a more profitable industry because of less competition to catch the limited quota’s.

How do you figure out a number to purchase a vessel? Pretty simple, take the average gross stock of the vessel for the last 5 year period and times it by 7 years. If a vessel averaged 500,000 dollars worth of fish each year over five years, then the buy out cost of that vessel would be $3,500,000. That
money would be as a grant and not taxable. First priorities would be the vessels most impacted by certain wind farm sites. Trawlers will be the most impacted long term because the ocean floor will be littered with millions of tons of rock spread around each base to reduce scouring, making many areas impossible for trawlers to ever fish in again with a bottom trawl. Clam and scallop vessels will also be denied admittance into these farm areas, and the wild card in all this is how will fishery populations react to an environment totally changed from just a few years ago, with unprecedented noise pollution from decades of construction and then decommissioning/removal. What fish will adapt and which won’t? What is the fate of the Northern Right Whale, and Fin Whale, it seems nobody at BOEM [Bureau of Ocean Energy Manglement] cares. Nor do any of the so called environmental activists who claim to want to save the ocean but don’t care that the Northern Right Whale is in a death spiral with most of
the mortalities coming from ship strikes, coincidentally the Right whales will be forced into the shipping lanes, because they will be the only paths not covered with windmills, leading to higher ship strike mortality.

The US fishing industry doesn’t need any more useless meetings with wind company representatives or BOEM. They need to be recognized as the victims of an unprecedented land steal by the multi-national Wind companies and be rightly compensated for the enormous loss they are about to suffer. We don’t need anymore promises of a beautiful future where fishermen live in harmony with giant foreign wind towers , we need fair treatment as the aggrieved party.

Jim Lovgren

9/11/2020

NOAA Fisheries needs to declare a fishery disaster for the north Atlantic fisheries of the east coast due to complications caused by the Coronavirus pandemic. Due to government shutdowns of the primary market for US seafood, the restaurants, the fishing industry has been suffering not from a shortage of fish, but from a shortage of markets to sell them. 70% of the sea food consumed in the United States is sold in restaurants, the Corona pandemic has caused complete shutdowns of indoor dining in many states or reduced capacity seating in others. This has resulted in no demand for fresh local US caught fish, a very perishable product, and the resultant low prices that haven’t been seen in 50 years. This week the Trump administration announced a program that would help fishermen that have been negatively impacted by retaliatory tariffs on exported seafood. This is a good first step, but much more needs to be done. The United States imports over 80% of the seafood consumed nationally, and many of the countries that we import from have little or no fishery regulations, while US fishermen have been hamstrung with the most stringent regulations in the world. It’s tough to compete against government subsidized fleets that have no regulations or regard for the marine environment. It’s time to put those countries on the same regulatory page as US fishermen.

Sustainable fisheries is what we have been pursuing for the last 30 years and the US has done a terrific job of rebuilding depleted stocks, unfortunately while doing so, market demand forced seafood dealers to look else where for product, and they found plenty of cheap seafood available from other countries that had no regulations, and in many cases were involved in outright illegal fishing practices. Once its imported here, who cares where it came from, as long as they made money, they looked the other way. An analogy can certainly be made comparing the shift in US seafood consumption from domestic production to mostly imported, to the shift in manufacturing jobs brought on by bad trade deals such as NAFTA. The end result is a net loss of good productive American jobs. When the National Marine Fishery Service was created back in 1976 with the creation of the Magnuson Act 80% of the seafood consumed in this country was domestically produced. In less then fifty years that figure has been turned on its head and now 80% is imported.

Last week I sent an email to Mike Pentony, Assistant Administrator of GARFO, and to Chris Moore the Executive director of the Mid Atlantic Fishery Management Council, with a request to forward the email to all MAFMC members, of which Chris did. The email requested that emergency action be taken to reduce the quota of Summer Flounder for the remainder of this year because prices have been dropping like a stone since the beginning of September and there is still millions of pounds of Summer flounder not yet caught this year. Prices have dropped in half in less then two weeks and will continue to drop as Virginia and North Carolina reopen their fisheries with large trip limits that under normal circumstances the market could absorb, but with the Covid closures will totally collapse the market. Fish that were selling for $4.00 a pound in August are now selling for $1.50, and will drop much further by the end of September and October probably becoming .50 to .75 cents a pound, and even less. Considering the expenses involved in catching those fish that amounts to a broker, where no one makes any money except the dock, for packing charges, and the boat owner who takes it from the top.

Northeast Atlantic fishermen, both commercial and recreational, have suffered from reduced catches for years in order to rebuild over fished stocks, and now that we have, we find we have no market for them despite the fact that we have a huge unemployment problem throughout our country, thanks to China, [not only for their spreading the virus, but their unfair trade practices] resulting in record demand for food banks and other charities. In my email I recommended that Virginia, North Carolina, and New Jersey voluntarily reduce their quota of Summer Flounder for the rest of the year by 33 to 50% to reduce the glut on the market that is going to get worse this fall. While this sounds like a nice idea, getting the states to agree to do that voluntarily is probably impossible, for a number of reasons not the least of which is that many northern states will use this as justification to further their attempted resource grab from the historical participants. To be clear the problem is not that we can’t catch the fish, its that we have no where to sell them unless we are willing to work for nothing or even less if you can’t cover expenses. I did mention in that email that perhaps the government could step in and purchase fish for use in schools, prisons or other institutions. Apparently that has already happened as the USDA has agreed to purchase thirty million dollars worth of shrimp to help shore up the shrimp industry in the Gulf of Mexico. Unfortunately no one on the east coast has stepped forward and offered to do the same for our fisheries that are on the verge of financial disaster thanks to Covid. So unless something is done quickly, the prices of two premium species, Summer Flounder, and Black Sea Bass are going to be so low they will become uncatchable. This scenario is further complicated by the lack of market for Whiting and Loligo Squid, both fisheries that are also presently devastated by lack of demand for product thanks to the pandemic.

I’m sure that New England groundfishermen are in the same boat in regard to reduced market for their product and the resultant horrible prices, that will soon bankrupt many in the industry regardless of PPP money. Fishermen want to catch fish and feed the public, that’s what makes this job enjoyable, the fact that we feed people. But to do that we risk our lives everyday, and we certainly should be compensated fairly for our hard work and stress it puts not only on the individual fisherman, but their family that depends on them. So what we need is a few of our elected officials to push the
USDA into creating a similar program as the Gulf shrimp fisheries have been granted through the CARES Act. A program that can buy millions of pounds of Summer Flounder, Black sea Bass, Loligo Squid and other species to provide seafood to those in need could prevent the collapse of the industry that will otherwise take place. While Suzie homemaker has used these quarantine times to increase their cooking skills, they have ignored cooking seafood at home for some reason. When the Fishery management councils were created along with the Magnuson Act they were also joined by regional fishery development commissions whose job it was to increase US seafood consumption through educational and other efforts. These were defunded by the 1990’s and ever since, our seafood imports have enormously increased. Is there a correlation between the two? Maybe some professional grant writer might want to look into that. In the meantime we need the US government to step up to the plate and save the industry from the Covid disaster they are facing by finding willing plates to serve US produced seafood on.

Thank You, Jim Lovgren

8/7/20,  Mr. Oliver. Recently you sent out an announcement about the resumption of Observer coverage set to begin on August 14th in fisheries where coverage had been suspended due to the Corona virus outbreak for the last 5 months. Personally I find your reasons for the resumption of observer coverage to be not only reckless, but dangerous to the health and safety of the American fishermen who make their living from the sea.

On a national level the Corona virus has now embarked on a second wave of infections that may be more dangerous than the first wave. Additionally, new research only raises more questions about its spread, while States that have lifted restrictions have re-imposed them, and those that didn’t have restrictions are now facing massive infection rates, resulting in more closures.

Yet you, in your infinite bureaucratic knowledge of what is right and what is wrong, think that at this time it is vitally important that observers be placed on fishing vessels where they can endanger the health of not only the crewmen but their families.

Interestingly, you have not put your own employees at risk. You have cancelled trawl survey’s for the remainder of this year so as not to risk their exposure to this lethal disease. This despite the fact that the NOAA trawl survey vessels are state of the art, and their crew could actually be quarantined before a trip to assure their safety. I’m sure they would be happy to collect two weeks of pay for sitting around watching TV somewhere.

You justify your decision on the fact that the observers will abide by whatever standards the fishing industry abides by. HELLO, Mr. Oliver, the fishing industry on the east coast is a bunch of family owned small boat operators who don’t have any such thing as standards, except that they know their crew, and trust them to behave responsibly. Or else we CAN them. That’s where you actually fire someone, because they are not doing their job, or are endangering the rest of the crew. Being a lifelong bureaucrat I’m sure you’re not familiar with that concept.

So my question is; why is a government employee, who actually produces nothing except politically motivated job destroying regulations, more valuable than a fisherman who actually produces something of value? I’d love to see you try to do this to a farmer. You’d be on the unemployment line in short order. The fishing industry on the other hand is just a disorganized bunch of freeloaders raping the ocean for profit. There’s nothing noble about feeding people if the energy industry is involved.

Hence you are willing to risk the lives of thousands of fishermen and their families so that the observer providers can remain solvent. It’s well known within the industry how a certain former regional administrator pushed for observer’s in all fisheries while serving in his official capacity, and then when he left that position created his own observer company to profiteer off of his previous work. One of his main supporters during that time was the PEW charitable trusts, hence the energy connection, and their subsequent villainization of the fishing industry.

So answer me, is a government employee’s life more valuable than a fisherman’s? Because that is exactly how your mandate comes across to everyone in the fishing industry. The spring and fall annual survey’s by the NEFSC are the backbone of the science used to estimate population dynamics of every stock on the east coast, yet you simply blow them off so as not to endanger government employees, but you are more then willing to risk the lives of fishermen for data that is totally redundant, and has minimal effect on stock assessments. Observers have been onboard fishing vessels on the east coast since the 1980’s, day after day, same boats, same tows, same catch, but somehow this is vitally important information worth risking lives for.

There is nothing vital about it except that it is typical bureaucratic empire building, your science sucks, so you need more information, except that even with more information your science still sucks. President Trump put forth an edict for all government agency’s to reduce the regulatory burden on our country’s industries two years ago. Perhaps you at NOAA didn’t see that memo. Placing observers onboard fishing vessels in the middle of a pandemic the likes of which has not been seen in our lifetimes is not reducing regulations on industry. It is endangering industry. Unless you want to be looked at like Governor’s Cuomo, and Murphy who thought it was a good idea to put Covid sick people into nursing homes, with the easily predictable genocide that caused, I suggest you cancel all observer coverage before you and the observer providers predictably end up being sued for manslaughter.

In the meantime maybe the GAO should do a thorough review of the Fishery science centers and the end result of their work. This would be called a cost assessment benefit analysis, which most industry’s do on a regular basis, to weed out useless protocol’s so they can actually produce a profit, while government just simply demands more money for less results and always claim they need even more money, and that’s why their results suck. Instead of dreaming up ways to increase the staff at NOAA, maybe you need to be thinking of practical ways to reduce the regulatory burden on not
just the fishing industry, but the fishery managers. Fishery management could be really simple if certain vested interests weren’t so intent on making it incomprehensible. It’s time for a serious look at what is going on at the Commerce department and their minions in NOAA/NMFS.

Thanks, Jim Lovgren

By Jim Lovgren

On July 1st the Trump administration’s agency, NOAA will require that fishing vessels resume taking fishery observers on their fishing trips. Due to the Coronavirus pandemic these activities have been suspended for almost three months due to the danger of spreading the deadly disease among the
fishing industry and their families. Fishery observers are required by National Marine Fishery Service regulations to observe commercial fishing operations in almost all of our countries fisheries based on various criteria that include likelihood of interaction with marine mammals or other protected species, amount of bycatch in each fishery, adherence to regulations, and anything else they can justify to support this huge taxpayer money gobbling con game they have created.

As the Covid 19 pandemic resurfaces throughout our country the genius’s at NOAA believe that they should put a bunch of strangers on board fishing vessels to observe what they are catching. Don’t worry, they have put stringent protocols in place to assure your safety. They will test the observers a
couple times a week and take their temperature, [hopefully anally], try to make sure the observers stay in the same port and on the same vessels, and various other safety precautions to assure that they don’t kill us. NMFS has a long history of trying to kill the fishing industry, so why should we believe their safety precautions will work now? Just this week both the Mid Atlantic and New England Fishery Management councils wrote letters to NOAA expressing their grave concerns about the resumption of the observer program in light of the resurgence of the pandemic throughout the country.

In New Jersey Governor Murphy just announced that the planned reopening of indoor dining at restaurants on July 1 st will not happen, other states are taking more stringent precautions in regard to public safety and the close aggregation of people in confined spaces, yet tone deaf NOAA insists that the observer program must resume, to hell with the people that they may very well kill. This is about as careless an act of utter thoughtlessness as Governor’s Cuomo and Murphy forcing assisted living facilities to take in infected patients no matter if they were capable of handling them or not. The genocide that caused is still being documented. Is NOAA willing to have the blood of fishermen and their families on their hands? Is the observer program so indispensable that they are willing to risk the lives and health of both fishermen and the observers? For what? We have had observers on our boats for decades sorting through the same catch trip after trip, year after year, in a predicable cycle of ordinary fishing operations and catch rates. Their data amounts to nothing more than mental masturbation for the micromanagers to claim the sky is falling, so that they can then say they need more money. Because that’s all the observer program is, a money making machine for a few influential individuals who saw the opportunity to create an unneeded bureaucracy to police the fishing industry and enrich themselves. If the government really cared about the U.S. fishing industry they would not have allowed the wholesale total destruction of our fish stocks by the Soviet Union in the 60’s and 70’s, but that’s a whole different
story.

So on July 1st,  if our caring politicians haven’t reigned in these out of control maniacs by continuing the present suspension of observer operations, I urge all fishermen to simply say NO. You will not endanger your life, or your crew, or your families for this reckless charade of unnecessary scientific intrusion. If our Politicians won’t step up then we as an industry need to take this to a Federal court and seek an injunction to stop it. Until this pandemic is over, and Americans can go about their lives in a safe and normal manner then there should bethere should be no observer’s placed on fishing vessels observer’s placed on fishing vessels on the east coast.
#FishermensLivesMatter