{"id":6904,"date":"2015-05-26T15:37:37","date_gmt":"2015-05-26T19:37:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fish-news.com\/cfn\/?p=6904"},"modified":"2015-06-30T12:41:51","modified_gmt":"2015-06-30T16:41:51","slug":"guest-coulmn-mosquito-fleet-fights-consolidation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fish-news.com\/cfn\/guest-coulmn-mosquito-fleet-fights-consolidation\/","title":{"rendered":"GUEST COULMN: Mosquito fleet fights consolidation"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Brett Tolley<\/strong><\/p>\n

Control over the iconic New England groundfish is concentrating into fewer hands because of catch share policy, and the future of our ocean and seafood system is at stake.<\/p>\n

According to last year\u2019s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) report, one entity controlled 25% of the entire groundfish revenue.<\/p>\n

With no safeguards in place that number continues to grow.<\/p>\n

And after years of rebuilding, the Gulf of Maine cod population has crashed again under catch share policy.<\/p>\n

\"Guest-column-SH\"Yet policy makers claim consolidation is not a problem.<\/p>\n

A growing movement of fishermen and allies disagree. They are rising up to challenge these policies and offering sound alternatives in return.<\/p>\n

So why are policy makers resisting these new voices?<\/p>\n

At April\u2019s New England Fisheries Management Council (NEMFC) meeting, fishermen and the public came to provide input on the fleet diversity amendment only to be shut down by the chair of the council, Terry Stockwell.<\/p>\n

Microphones were turned off in mid-testimony for only these new voices while the old guard, pushing for status quo, was given unfettered access to speak.<\/p>\n

Some of those whose voices were muted had traveled as long as five hours to attend the meeting.\u00a0 From the moment they walked in the room it was clear they weren\u2019t welcome.<\/p>\n

When I asked the council chairman if he could allow time for this group of fishermen, students, and healthcare representatives to testify he said, \u201cno\u201d.<\/p>\n

Stockwell claimed that there was too much on the agenda to make room for public input.\u00a0 I asked him if he would consider how far folks had traveled to be there, and again he said \u201cno\u201d and then proceeded to call me an \u201casshole.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is not the type of behavior you would expect from a public servant at a public meeting.<\/p>\n

This behavior isn\u2019t isolated.<\/p>\n

Not too long ago New Bedford industry businessman Carlos Rafael referred to those fishermen and women fighting against consolidation as \u201c…mosquitoes on the balls of an elephant.\u201d<\/p>\n

It clearly was not a compliment, but I took it as a sign of a growing power in the independent, mosquito-like fleet.<\/p>\n

In fact, one fisherman said, \u201cthis guy has clearly never been in a swarm of mosquitoes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like a solo mosquito, an independent fisherman doesn\u2019t stand a chance when confronting the powers that be.\u00a0 But a swarm of them, all biting at the same time, can affect major change.\u00a0 And major change is exactly what we need.<\/p>\n

Starting in 2010, New England\u2019s groundfish catch share policy promised to improve fishermen\u2019s livelihoods and save the fish…<\/p>\n

\"CFN_6_15cover\"<\/a>Read the rest of this story in the June issue of\u00a0Commercial Fisheries News<\/em>. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Get a Print edition of CFN mailed to you.\u00a0PRINT<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Quickly enjoy online access with our flip-book.\u00a0ONLINE<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>[add_to_cart=6856]<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Read online immediately with access key and download a copy. \u00a0Not sure<\/a>?)<\/em><\/p>\n

Save Big when you\u00a0Subscribe<\/a>!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Brett Tolley Control over the iconic New England groundfish is concentrating into fewer hands because of catch share policy, and the future of our ocean and seafood system is at stake. According to last year\u2019s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) report, one entity controlled 25% of the entire groundfish revenue. With no safeguards in … <\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6169,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,107,227],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-news","category-guest-column","category-june-15","nodate","item-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fish-news.com\/cfn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fish-news.com\/cfn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fish-news.com\/cfn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fish-news.com\/cfn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fish-news.com\/cfn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6904"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/fish-news.com\/cfn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7028,"href":"https:\/\/fish-news.com\/cfn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6904\/revisions\/7028"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fish-news.com\/cfn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fish-news.com\/cfn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fish-news.com\/cfn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fish-news.com\/cfn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}