February 16, 2016 — STONINGTON — U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal met with a group of local commercial fishermen at the Portuguese Holy Ghost Society club Monday afternoon to discuss the challenges they face from seasonal regulations governing the amount and type of fish they are allowed to catch.
The regulations, which are intended to restore fish stocks, are the result of an outdated system, Blumenthal said.
“I don’t need to tell anyone here how antiquated and byzantine the system is,” he said to the group of more than 30 fishermen at the Main Street club. “The bottom line is fishermen are increasingly underrepresented and unrespected. Many of you are having to discard fish that are already dead before they hit the water again.”
Blumenthal said his reason for convening the meeting, which was sponsored by the Connecticut Seafood Council, was to listen to the fishermen, as they are the group that is most immediately affected by the rules.
“If the conversation is confined to this room, then we lose,” he said. “This is all about increasing public awareness. People’s voices need to be heard.”
Many of the fishermen who attended the meeting shared their opinions and concerns.
Chuck Fellow said the rules don’t just affect the Stonington fishing community, but also every fishing community across the nation as well as consumers.
“The people who made the decisions about the regulations are so misinformed and weren’t fishermen,” he said. “We’re hard workers and we’re doing this for our families and our communities. We need our fish back and don’t want to throw away any more fish that come across our docks.”
The issues include limits on catches, restrictions on gear, state quotas, rules intended to limit the mortality of bycatch, and seasonal closures of fishing grounds.
Fisherman Joel Hovanesian of Narragansett said if something isn’t done about the regulations, many fishermen might be forced to close up shop.
“I don’t often use this word, but what’s happening to us from the heads of these government agencies has become tyrannical,” he said. “It’s infuriating. Why are fishermen and farmers under attack from the federal government?”