Cod cut loss to city: $70M
By Richard Gaines
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A statutory need to address a reported widespread decline in the status of the Gulf of Maine cod was translated Wednesday into terms of a potential economic catastrophe for the New England groundfishing industry — with projections of dealing a $70 million hit to Gloucester’s economy alone.
Click here for the rest of the story
Richard Gaines reports some really heavy stuff today in the Gloucester Daily Times but other than people directly involved in the fishing industry locally and a few other folks that seem to weigh in on it outside of the industry I wonder if the general public has tuned it all out because it is so difficult to understand and or they gave up trying because it’s impossible to keep up with all the changes.
In either case there are some MAJOR MAJOR changes to the life and independent spirit of what so many people have clung to here for so long but it seems like people are resigned to feel like it’s all a done deal.
Like the people that think that the Government is ever going to allow the amount of fish that was once landed in this city to ever be harvested again, that’s just crazy. They would be nuts to because it would get us right back to the state of overfishing that got us into this mess in the first place. But now with Catch shares and the privatization of the industry and without provisions to make sure that fishing permits stay in the hands of independent fishermen I never thought I’d see the day but within our lifetime there likely will be very few independently owned fishing boats.
When you listen to the bananaheads at the meetings continue to cling on to the hope that this town is going to somehow revert back into the golden days of schooners or when our Grandfathers and Father’s age when millions and millions of pounds of fish were being landed here on a daily basis tell them to wake up.
It’s not “Times, They are A Changin’”
They’ve Changed.
Good Morning Gloucester 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lorax
The Lorax is an endearing Dr Seuss story about a mossy old hermit who lives in a psychedelic forest that abounds with bizarre wildlife until greedy capitalists, personified by the evil Once-ler, descend upon the forest (sea) and start to fell the beautiful Truffula Trees in order to turn their foliage into a completely useless clothing item:Thneeds.
LikeLike
I don’t have apathy, but I agree that it is a complicated and difficult to understand situation, so I might be guilty of tuning it out at times. However, as a citizen of Gloucester, this is a good reminder that I need to learn more and get more involved. I think the other aspect is that I feel helpless and unsure of what productive steps to take to help the Gloucester fishing industry.
LikeLike
Dont feel bad, I can’t even keep up.
LikeLike
I have followed the industry with interest since first reading “Memoirs of a Gloucester Fisherman” by R. Salve Testaverde (1987?) but it is truly too complex to understand even following the accounts in the news! The loss of the independent fishermen feels much like that of small family farms in the Midwest.
LikeLike
I am glad you enjojed my father,s book it was a great deed for a man with limited schooling to wrie after lossing his wife, I was at the knee of my father at many fisheries meeting most State early on the Fed, got so involved in the workings my own family suffered but I had no choice We were in for the long haul.I got very deep into the mechanics of the regulations , some good people and some I won’t save if they were drowning next to me. .As others know there is a minority of people in Washington whom want to have 3-4 big Corp. rather than the many small family owned businesses who employed more people directly or indirectly; easier too regulate ! I beiive a licence should have no vaule but the paper it’s printed on and those who can make do and those who can’t don’t. the way it was for hundreds of years.Then the business would regulate itself.But that’s me just and old fisherman.
LikeLike
Joey, you ask if there is apathy with regard to Gloucester’s recent fishing news and if folks have given up tryin to understand fisheries management. How could there be any othere mindset on the part of those of us who are concerned with the Cod fisheries’ ultimate survival?
My grandfather, Capt.John A. Dahlmer brought his boat, Margaret D to Gloucester from the Great Lakes in 1912 after a group called ever since known as, The Michigan Bears had established the first successful gillnet fishery in the northwest Atlantic. Capt. Albert Arnold in his Mindoro led the way in 1910, the first to sail the 2200 miles between Charlevoix, MI and Gloucester. As crew, he had three seasoned captains: Oliver(Cy) Tysver, Herman Tysver, and Garry(Mike) Shores.
I grew up in a Gloucester fishing family where the state of the fisheries was always a prime subject of discussion and a key to economic viability. In my early years I fished occasionally on the families dragger, Superior and late for Tuna and Striped bass on my own boat. While I never considered myself a commercial fisherman, I have always had a keen awareness of the various New England fisheries. Active in conservation matters, I served as a state representative for New Hampshire on the NE Fisheries Mgt. Council, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and a number of state and regional committees concerned with the status of our groundfish stocks.
Richard Gain’s article should be read carefully by everyone concerned with todays’ status of Cod and also those who enjoy a good meal of that fish for, the times they are a’ changin!
Just three years after declaring Gulf of Maine Cod on a robust path to full recovery; NMFS is now about to declare they are being overfished and in danger of collapse. The same scenario recently unfolded here in the south Atlantic with regard to Red Snapper and several Grouper Species. Is it any wonder that folks from Maine to Florida are confused and disgusted with the flip-flopping of the agency? The Cavalier attitude of NMFS management and seeming inability to report the health of many species accurately has even Congress shaking their heads. That, coupled with NMFS
ramming throug CATCH SHARE regulations which may well spell the death of the family-owned small boat shore fisheries along the Atlantic coast.
Yes, there is apathy. And I attribute that to NMFS bowing to some big NGSs, like Pew Environmental, and adopting CATCH Shares and other forms of fisheries management without ridgid investigation of what such drastic measures would mean in the way of social and economic upheaval of our coastal communities and their fishermen. I fervantly hope it is not too late to reverse those ill-advised measures.
LikeLike