NARRAGANSETT R.I. — March 2, 2013 — A five-part series of community workshops began Feb. 28 in Rockland, Maine, with the goal of reshaping fisheries policies in New England. The “Who Fishes Matters Tour,” organized by New England’s Fish Locally Collaborative and sponsored by the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance, will visit four more New England fishing ports, including Point Judith on March 6.
The tour brings together the region’s fishermen and fishing communities to develop new policy alternatives that will ensure a diverse fishing fleet that can protect the fish and the fishermen. Key to the success of the tour is the presence of outside fisheries experts who have worked on implementing fisheries policies that address social, environmental, economic and food system concerns in other regions — British Columbia, Nova Scotia and France are represented on this tour. The tour also will stop in Gloucester, Mass., Portsmouth, N.H., and Cape Cod.
The Rhode Island segment of the tour will consist of a workshop for fishermen, their families and their supporters. The workshop will be held at 55 State St. in the port of Galilee (above Superior Trawl) March 6 from 4-7 p.m.
“If we are to avoid the next fisheries disaster now is time to be proactive and bring fishing community members together,” said Tracy Pearce of Maine, one of the tour’s organizers. “The Who Fishes Matters Tour will engage fishermen and community members to shape a policy that is critically important to the future of New England’s coastal communities and the ocean that sustains us.”
At the heart of the controversy is the catch-share policy’s push for consolidation of the fishing industry that has endangered fleet diversity and the ability of matching scale of fishing to the scale of the region’s marine ecosystem. Evidence shows how by devaluing the scale of fishing operation the catch-share policy has shifted fishing power to inshore areas such as Stellwagen Bank and putting that ecosystem at risk.
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