Note: There is a maximum of 200 words per comment. If you wish to post more, please visit our forum.
Concerned citizen wrote on Mar 18, 2008 6:02 PM:
Most of the checks that the commercial fishermen got for not being able to fish, didn't even pay for the moorage of their boats at the Charleston marina, let alone any repairs of the boats, and the million other things they have to pay for. Not enough money to pay any rent, house payment, utilities, or any other bills, they expect to pay with the money they make when they used to be able to fish. And don't even think of this as WELFARE PAYMENTS, like the people that don't want to work get. Commercial fishermen don't get unemployment, or welfare money like a lot of other people get. They want to fish, they don't want the free money, but they have to get what they can to pay at least part of their boat moorage or they will lose their boats, that they have all their life savings wrapped up in.
Charleston resident wrote on Mar 18, 2008 5:47 PM:
Ryan you don't know what the heck you are talking about. that is a JOKE, "govt. welfare check" you have no idea at all what you just said. Actually I was going to explain to you, but it really isn't even worth it, you would never understand some common sense.
Gene Soccolich wrote on Mar 17, 2008 7:22 AM:
COMMERCIAL FISHING CALLS FOR CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT
WE, THE PEOPLE, legal residents of the United States and members of the commercial fishing community, to achieve a more sustainable fishery and fishing industry, request formal congressional oversight hearings on the National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS) stewardship, which we find to be grossly deficient, causing severe economic harm, and in which we proclaim our vote of no confidence.
Fishery resource assessments, diligently conducted by marine scientists, are only part of the data equation needed to establish credible optimum yield estimates and develop true ecosystem based management. Marine fisheries, due to their primitive nature and extreme sensitivity to climatic changes, are at the vanguard of global warming economic impact.
NMFS has failed to promulgate any comprehensive methodology for assessing the impacts of such environmental variability on reproductive patterns, migration routes and ecosystem relationships. NMFS instead has placed the entire onus of resource depletion on commercial fishermen with constraints recklessly causing severe harm and suffering to the fishing community. Fishermen, who have obeyed NMFS regulations, now find themselves and their fishing communities on the brink of economic disaster.
Federal court recently has rebuked our government for its gross lack of comprehensively addressing the impacts of global warming, and as corroborated in a September 2007 report by the Government Accountability Office. U.S. fisheries already must operate in an unfair competitive arena of fisheries subsidized by other nations, from where imports now greatly surpass U.S. harvests. Our fisheries no longer can sustain more elitist federal disregard. That the U.S. demands the destructive discard of all inadvertent by-catch in the face of world hunger only manifests a nation’s arrogance. NMFS’s expedited resource recovery plans will turn the small fisherman, unable financially to sustain more constraints without due compensation, inhumanely into the ultimate by-catch.
Without comprehensive assessments on potential environmental change impacts on marine fisheries, optimum yields must not be lowered without providing equal compensation to affected fishing communities. The government legally cannot have it both ways, however in the absence of comprehensive impact data, compensation also cannot be ascertained. Historical data and resource assessments no longer are sufficient to meet baseline scientific requirements to substantiate NMFS’s recovery plans.
No industry could reasonably operate in a business manner under such a constant barrage of abrupt emergency actions and regulatory changes by NMFS for over a decade. Immediate congressional oversight of NMFS’s assessment methodology, not its simple consideration of environmental variability, is the next logical action to the findings of the federal court and the GAO. Taking no action only would condone the present suffering of our fishing communities and set dangerous federal precedent for placing other sectors of our nation’s agricultural communities in similar jeopardy of economic distress and increased foreign dependence. We trust our congressional representatives to have both the will and the wisdom to take rightful action and stop this bleeding.
THE PORT OF NEW BEDFORD BUSINESS ALLIANCE
WE, THE PEOPLE, legal residents of the United States and members of the commercial fishing community, to achieve a more sustainable fishery and fishing industry, request formal congressional oversight hearings on the National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS) stewardship, which we find to be grossly deficient, causing severe economic harm, and in which we proclaim our vote of no confidence.
Fishery resource assessments, diligently conducted by marine scientists, are only part of the data equation needed to establish credible optimum yield estimates and develop true ecosystem based management. Marine fisheries, due to their primitive nature and extreme sensitivity to climatic changes, are at the vanguard of global warming economic impact.
NMFS has failed to promulgate any comprehensive methodology for assessing the impacts of such environmental variability on reproductive patterns, migration routes and ecosystem relationships. NMFS instead has placed the entire onus of resource depletion on commercial fishermen with constraints recklessly causing severe harm and suffering to the fishing community. Fishermen, who have obeyed NMFS regulations, now find themselves and their fishing communities on the brink of economic disaster.
Federal court recently has rebuked our government for its gross lack of comprehensively addressing the impacts of global warming, and as corroborated in a September 2007 report by the Government Accountability Office. U.S. fisheries already must operate in an unfair competitive arena of fisheries subsidized by other nations, from where imports now greatly surpass U.S. harvests. Our fisheries no longer can sustain more elitist federal disregard. That the U.S. demands the destructive discard of all inadvertent by-catch in the face of world hunger only manifests a nation’s arrogance. NMFS’s expedited resource recovery plans will turn the small fisherman, unable financially to sustain more constraints without due compensation, inhumanely into the ultimate by-catch.
Without comprehensive assessments on potential environmental change impacts on marine fisheries, optimum yields must not be lowered without providing equal compensation to affected fishing communities. The government legally cannot have it both ways, however in the absence of comprehensive impact data, compensation also cannot be ascertained. Historical data and resource assessments no longer are sufficient to meet baseline scientific requirements to substantiate NMFS’s recovery plans.
No industry could reasonably operate in a business manner under such a constant barrage of abrupt emergency actions and regulatory changes by NMFS for over a decade. Immediate congressional oversight of NMFS’s assessment methodology, not its simple consideration of environmental variability, is the next logical action to the findings of the federal court and the GAO. Taking no action only would condone the present suffering of our fishing communities and set dangerous federal precedent for placing other sectors of our nation’s agricultural communities in similar jeopardy of economic distress and increased foreign dependence. We trust our congressional representatives to have both the will and the wisdom to take rightful action and stop this bleeding.
THE PORT OF NEW BEDFORD BUSINESS ALLIANCE
Ryan wrote on Mar 15, 2008 9:13 PM:
The recreational fishery contributes millions to the local economies and allows more people to participate in the fishery. Why does The World's and other media's coverage just focus on commercial trollers? The commercial trollers are part of the problem. They get their govt. welfare check during no season while sport fishing dependant businesses suffer and always get shafted.
My 2 cents.
My 2 cents.
Seymour Glassman wrote on Mar 15, 2008 11:40 AM:
I am not a fishing person. I lived on the East Coast from 1929 to 1967. We had problems with many species of fish that just vanished. It was pollution. Stop spending monies on paper work and get back to basics. Twenty-five years later after
cleaning the water ( not at acceptable standers ) Pollution and global warming may be the problem. Nature will run its course. Greed and big corporate profit is the problem. Example ENRON ,Gas, and deep pockets.Read the reports on the
pollution of most water supplies that go
through our plants and dumped in our rivers. It may be safe for people. Fish
may not. WE have changed the habitat. It
does not take science. The government and the agencies are playing a game .
This country was built by small bssiness
Corporations put most of the little mom and pop stores out of business.
cleaning the water ( not at acceptable standers ) Pollution and global warming may be the problem. Nature will run its course. Greed and big corporate profit is the problem. Example ENRON ,Gas, and deep pockets.Read the reports on the
pollution of most water supplies that go
through our plants and dumped in our rivers. It may be safe for people. Fish
may not. WE have changed the habitat. It
does not take science. The government and the agencies are playing a game .
This country was built by small bssiness
Corporations put most of the little mom and pop stores out of business.
The World welcomes your comments about stories, and we encourage a robust dialogue on this site. All comments must meet reasonable standards of decency and civility.
Please follow these basic rules:
- No defamatory comments about individuals or businesses.
- No deliberately false information.
- No obscenity or racially offensive language.
- No harassment, verbal abuse, threats or personal attacks.
- No information that invades another person's privacy.
- No business solicitations or charitable solicitations.
Comments that violate these standards will not be posted. Users with repeated violations may be banned from future posting.Comments will be approved throughout the day during business hours. After hours and weekend comments may not appear until the following business day. It may take a couple of hours before comments are approved.
The World generally does not edit comments, but we reserve the right to edit any comment that does not meet our standards.
Close Guidelines