Why Salmon Fishermen But Not Shark Or Grouper Fishermen?
While I am very happy for the West Coast salmon fishermen, to whom the new Commerce Secretary, coincidentally a former West Coast governor, released some $53 million in disaster funds I can’t help but wonder why them and not others?
The Magnuson-Stevens Act has a provision in it wherebye the Secretary of Commerce can do exactly what our new Secretary of Commerce just did: provide disaster relief to fishermen for fishery collapse, whether it be the result of natural causes or regulation.
However, the West Coast salmon fishermen are not alone. The government has precipitated many fishery disasters through disasterous regulatory policy and I can’t help but wonder why the fishermen from the West Coast are benefitting from this while the fishermen in the Northeast are fighting for their lives and the fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico are losing their fight and being, quite simply, put out of business.
The directed shark fishery in the Gulf of Mexico is gone. The deep water grouper fishery is down to less than 5 months in the worst weather of the year and now the shallow water longline fishery has been summarily closed because some observers witnessed 11 turtle takes on grouper gear over an 18 month period.
Read this letter, written by Attorney Mike Mastry in November of 2007. It was a start, but the Govenment has hit us nonstop on so many fronts that this doesn’t seem to have gone anywhere. Why would that be?
If the fisheries I used to participate in haven’t suffered a disaster, then I don’t know what a disaster is.
(The author of this post is a commercial boat owner and fisherman whose opinions are his own and don’t necessarily represent those of S.O.F.A.)
