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As many of you who read this blog on a regular basis know, I have a friend who is active within the New England fishing industry who keeps me informed of what is happening with the attempted government takeover of the industry. She recently submitted an article to the New Bedford Standard Times updating some recent events in the battle to save the small fishermen of New England.
Meghan relates some of her experiences with the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and its battle against the small fishermen of New England:
In fact, EDF has on-site paid personnel in Washington, on a continual basis, to lobby Congress for its own agenda. I have seen its employees repeatedly at congressional fishery hearings in D.C. At one such hearing, I witnessed EDF pay to have a few, select “poster children” fishermen, whose airfare, lodging and total expenses were paid by EDF, come and sit in a congressional hearing room before a House subcommittee, and wear red T-shirts that said “Fishermen for Catch Shares.”
The rest of us from the fishing industry who attended, in order to oppose catch shares, did not have any of those luxuries. We, as the majority of the industry, had to take unpaid time off of our own jobs, away from our own businesses and boats, and money out of our own pockets and those of other cash-strapped industry members who wanted their voices heard, to pay for hotels, food, travel, etc., in order to defend our own interests against groups such as EDF who would lead Congress to believe that we “wanted” catch shares in our region. My experience has been that EDF works against the majority fishermen, not with them.
Please follow the link to the article to see further details. The bottom line here is that the New England small commercial fishermen are fighting a well-funded, cash-rich group of bureaucrats who either do not understand the needs of the small commercial fishing fleet owners or are trying to destroy the small businessmen within the fishing industry. This is a place where New Englanders need to let the government know that they are meddling where they have no reliable scientific information and no rational reason for meddling. I appreciate the efforts of the Congressmen in Massachusetts who are fighting for the rights of the small commercial fisherman–regardless of which party they represent.
