(I certainly do not have all the details, I am basing this on a radio report.)
The Massachusetts fisheries are in trouble. New regulations limit boats going to some areas more than 24 days a year. The Governor is asking for federal disaster aid. Why? To preserve the fishing and support industries.
Why they heck would we want to help these people? They are the ones who took all the fish to make a fast buck! Now they want more money because they took all the fish! If we don’t help them, they will not be around to take all the fish next time.
So they’re industry is going tit-up because of their own greed, so we are supposed to bail them out. Your thoughts?
The Fish could reproduce! They could become a danger! Remember Steve Irwin!
No they aren’t. The fishery has been in decline for decades, even before the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976 expanded the US economic exclusion zone from 12 miles to 200 miles. The damage was caused by international fishing fleets, not just those of Massachusetts.
So we need to preserve the Massachusetts fishing fleet why? In case The Good Old Days suddenly return? The fisheries are near ruin. We need fewer fishermen. We do not need to encourage people to stay in the business.
It would make sense to me to limit fishing for a few years until stocks can replentish – it would be a real shame for them to be depleted forever. In the meantime, keep the fishermen on their feet, so they can return full-steam in a few years.
Boo hoo the fish are gone. The whales are gone. The manatee are gone. The lobsters are gone. The sponges anywhere within reach of Florida sponger fishermen are gone. We took them all. Now give us welfare. Actually, not to the fishermen, but to the boat and cannery owners.
I guess I’m a bit confused here. Do you have some more information?
I heard recently that the waters were being depleted of fish in general, and if we didn’t cut down on fishing, we could see mass extinctions, or at leat a permanent dent in the industry. In which case I’d support subsidizing fishermen until population levels rise again.
What I heard today, though, was that because of global warming combined with recent weather, colder waters have forced cod out of the area – there’s simply little of it to be had. On the bright side, shrimp and snow crab will be bumper crops this year. But I don’t think that cod fishermen are equipped to catch those types of things. (I could be wrong.) In that case, I support subsidizing until the cod return.
In either case, I don’t see anything terribly outrageous in Deval’s request, but I’m operating on faulty information here.
I am also biased, I admit. I loves putting my mouth on things that taste like fish.
