Since Congress passed the first major fishing law in 1976, the main federal body that governs fishing has quadrupled in size.
Fishermen say the government is just about everywhere these days. Some are required to have black boxes on their boats that use satellites to track them wherever they go. They periodically have to take “government observers” out to sea with them on fishing trips. Everything they catch is recorded. The type of gear they use, what they can keep and what they must throw back, what safety equipment they must carry: The government controls all of it.
“We’re the second most regulated industry in the U.S. behind nuclear power plants. In the last 20 years we’ve lost 75 percent of the commercial fleet and regulations have quadrupled,” says Hank Lackner, a squid boat captain at Lund’s Fisheries in Lower Township.