L E T T E R S  T O  T H E  E D I T O R

Open Letter to NOAA Regional Administrator John Bullard

Dear John,

I’m leaving you. You’ve lost me. You’ve tripped yourself up in your misinformation too many times.

The honeymoon is over. It’s all over. My heart is broken. And I’m angry. Do you actually expect anyone to believe this gurry barge you just attempted to foist upon the public as truth? This is Gloucester. We still hear the shrill echos of your elitist “nobody is guaranteed a job for life” — unless you’re “the Shredder” and his enforcement gang. Then your callous “day of reckoning” comment! Bet you wish you could take that one back!

Comparing scallops to the entire multi-species complex is similar to comparing a barroom shoving match to a nuclear holocaust. We both know that codfish will never approach the ex-vessel price of scallops! Yet that inference seems to be just one of your numerous delusions.

Similar to lowering fish sizes, which flies in the face of everything the industry has accepted, and indeed, suggested over the past 20 years, we increased mesh sizes and their associated fish sizes so that every fish would have a chance to reproduce itself before entering the fishery. It works. It’s called sustainability.

Discards of undersized fish are currently insignificant in the larger picture. We haven’t been landing the monkfish total allowable catch as it was, so a measly 4.7 percent increase is meaningless. In fact, if it could have been responsibly increased, why hasn’t it already been done? And dogfish?

You really think another 1,000 pounds a day of 18-cent fish is going to save anybody? Then there’s my personal favorite — redfish, the biggest joke of all. To help out a handful of the biggest offshore players with the most political clout, and quota — and every one of them knows that we know who every one of them is — you’ve got the nerve to reduce mesh size by almost two inches and fish size for a full two inches on the slowest growing fish in the complex? When there’s no market, no infrastructure?

You know what size filet you get off a 7-inch redfish, even if you can find someone to cut it? Most of those people are long dead, as was the redfishery up until large mesh and fish sizes saved the stock from the brink. And what good are a few more blackbacks and hake if we haven’t got the codfish to access them?

Now I’ve got a few questions for you. When was the last time NMFS or NOAA went to Congress or the president and said, “We need some disaster relief funding for these guys, and we need it now!” — or “we’ve got to write some flexibility into the Magnusson re-authorization so we can ditch these arbitrary rebuilding timelines!”?

When, John? When was the last time NOAA went to bat for us?

Paul Cohan
Gloucester
Captain, F/V Sasquatch

Above All a Pro Lobsterman Position

I want to say shame on the MLA, Lobster Promotion Council and Genevieve Kurilec! Information that they are putting out to Maine Lobstermen is misleading and some of it is misinformation. I believe Ms. Kurilec wrote a letter that was published in the Fishermans Voice opposing a Lobstermen’s Union. Now I see in the Landings publication an “MLA Press Release” with the headline, “Lobstermen’s Union Leaves Too Many Questions Unanswered”. This press release is also directing fishermen to a website against the idea of union that has Ms. Kurilec as the contact person. Makes me question her connections within certain agencies.

After reading this press release the information in it is misleading, especially about the union dues of $626. The amount is correct, but it is not a monthly due of $626, it is yearly. If at anytime you feel they are not representing you stop paying the dues. How much more does the lobster promotion council want to hit lobstermen for now, and the MLA seems to support their efforts of taking more money from the fishermen with what result in the end? Why would entities that say they are for the fishermen by the fishermen not want fishermen to unite and find someone to be their voice, not the industries voice but the fishermen’s voice?

I also believe that these so called groups that are currently “standing up” on the behalf of fishermen should be honest about the fact that the European Market doesn’t want anything to do with American, U.S.A. lobster! That in fact Canada has promised to ship lobster at a price of $4.75 a pound, what do you think that does to the American Lobster Market? Educate yourself, ask questions, don’t count out a Lobstermen’s Union because the people you think you can trust are being totally honest with you. Are they?

Again, I will ask you...why is the MLA and MLPC so vocal against a union or any other source of support for fishermen? Why do they want to be the only voice for this industry? What is their drive and what have they really done for you the fisherman?! And before you jump all over my case, I am not pushing the idea of a union. What I am pushing for is pro lobsterman and do whatever it takes to keep this fishery and this way of life alive and well.

Myra Haskell
Lic # 1229
North Haven