We finally have a Win, But we still need a U.S. Fish Bill for U.S. Fishermen.

The  Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument will reopen to commercial fishing, thanks to President Trump’s order yesterday on June 5th in Bangor, Maine. This was unexpected, long overdue, and very much needed for our fisherman.

I can remember fishing those waters with my dad back in the sixties for whiting . Normally February, March and April, were good times for whiting, even though we only got a nickel a lb! I can remember fishing with our ninety foot side trawler seeing a small lobster boat fishing there for deep sea lobsters that were very plentiful.

Captain and owner Bob Brown from the Cape was the first lobsterman to go that far offshore, especially in the spring. He got a nickname Suicide Brown .

Not only were these fishing grounds productive for Whiting, Squid, Lobsters, and other deep sea fish, it helped fishermen from Rhode Island to Maine. These fishing grounds are important to us because we can now give the cod, haddock, and flounder in other area’s a break while fishing for whiting that are plentiful in those waters.

In all the years we fish there I never heard of any damage to the cayons and there is no proof today that we did.

Don’t forget the foreign ships are not allowed there as they were in the sixties.

And even though the lobstermen were granted three years before they were evicted, it would have hurt them down the road, and I know the Mass Lobster Association Beth Amaral had a lot to do with getting it open for them and us.

So! We finally have a win, but we need more wins lIke fishermen not have to pay for at sea monitoring, STOPPING OFFSHORE WIND FARMS, stopping fin fish aquaculture in the EEZ, accurate surveys, better science.

But we still need a U.S. Fish Bill for U.S. Fishermen.

Thank You

Sam Parisi, Gloucester, Mass.

 

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