LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Something That Should Not Be For Sale

 NOAA’s budget request is indicative of lack of commonsense, communication and cooperation with the fishing industry. Their objective seems to be about destroying fishermen and our communities. Stock assessments, science, Magnuson Stevens Act and real data, is unnecessary in their quest. Vote NO on NOAA’s budget and help save the fishermen.

My family has been fishing for scallops for over 20 years. Scallops are not over fished now or recently. In fact, the resource is at the second highest level since keeping records. Soame closed area scallops are dying of old age.

With the Catch Share management tool my family can fish only 4 days this year. Scallop Amendment #11 took over 2900 permits and qualified only 329 small boats. Of these 329, very few boats are viable under ITQs/Catch Shares. I only know of one boat that can make a living. The rest are like my family-1 day, 2 days, 4 days, or 9 days.

Catch Shares is an economic tool not a conservation one. It is a redistribution of wealth. The majority of the fishing industry is against this unfair consolidation of fishermen. We have abided by the strict regulations, made sacrifices, and we were led to believe when the stocks rebounded we would be able to share the bounty. What happened to those promises? Why are current stock assessments being ignored?

NOAA is on a train wreck with the Catch Share scheme. A public resource is about to be lost to a wealthy few. This is discriminatory and in 2007, the United Nations agreed. No one has the right to ownership through transferability. The rich should not be able to buy something that should not be for sale.

For every fishing job, it supports 6.6 jobs on land (Univ. of Maine). We need more jobs not less. Why spend taxpayer’s money to put us out of work unnecessarily? This makes no sense. What are all these displaced fishermen and related businesses to do?

The small boat family fleet does less harm to the resources, the environment and our money supports coastal communities. Why is NOAA favoring huge, corporate fleets while the small boats are practicing sustainable fishing? We need diversity in our fleet to sustain our resources.

NOAA is requesting to spend $54 million dollars on Catch Shares that the fishing industry does NOT need or want. This should be raising red flags! All fisheries management plans need to rely on timely, accurate science. Yet, Dr. Jane Lubechenco wants to siphon money from our cooperative research to force Catch Shares.

We need a 2- year Catch Share moratorium and Congressional oversight hearings for the Council, NMFS/NOAA-mismanagement, corruption, conflict of interest and breaking the Magnuson Stevens Act (MSA). No one should be exempt from laws.

My kudos to our elected officials, who all ready have joined our efforts to insure the continuance of the fish AND the coastal communities. A 400-year old tradition does not deserve to die because of mismanagement.

Senators – Bruce Tarr, Scott Brown, Charles Schumer, John Kerry, George LeMieux, Richard Burr, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kay Hagan.

Congressmen & women –- John Tierney, Barney Frank, Henry Brown, Walter Jones, Carol Shea-Porter, Frank Pallone, John Mica, Cliff Stearns, Ilena Ros-Lehtinen, Adam Putnam, Bill Posey, Ron Paul, Solomon Ortiz, Michael Michaud, Mike McIntyre, Larry Kissell, Peter King, Patrick Kennedy, Alan Grayson, Ander Crenshaw, Joe Courtney, Donna Christensen, Michael Capuano, Ginny Brown-Waite, Allen Boyd, Jo Bonner, Tim Bishop, Gus Bilirakis, Bob Andrews, John Adler, Peter DeFazio.

Governors – Rick Perry, Bobby Jindal, Haley Barbour, Bob Riley.

Mayors – Scott Lang & Carolyn Kirk and Rep. Ann Margaret Ferrante.

Respectfully,
Mary Beth de Poutiloff
Provincetown, MA
Harrington, ME