February 2, 2016 — It’s clear from listening to fishermen that they’re ambivalent about the fisheries management process and the rules it produces. They feel like the rules are stacked against them, but they abide by the council’s decisions, because that is the process they have signed onto. The presidential order would fall outside that process.
Jackie Odell advocates for New England groundfishermen with the Northeast Seafood Coalition. She said the fisheries management process is public and transparent, and decisions are data-driven, goal-specific and reached through compromise.
“You know, there’s legislation that’s out there to protect this process,” she said. “And if we don’t want to use that process what are we doing and why? Why are all stakeholders — states, fishermen, NGOs, scientific community — all engaging in a process that in the end we are going to say, it doesn’t matter.”
But, she added, the fishing industry and environmental groups don’t have to be adversaries: Fishermen are also concerned about mining and natural gas exploration.
Witman, the longtime Cashes Ledge researcher, agrees.
“In the long run, I think we want the same thing. We both value a healthy resilient ocean that can support fisheries,” he said.
But the sticking point might be one of perspective.
Many fishermen, including Testaverde, entered this profession because it’s what their family had been doing for generations. They take immense pride in their work and their heritage. They fear a future in which their descendants won’t experience that.
Skerry, the photographer, fears a future in which one of Earth’s beautiful places is irrevocably damaged.
Read the full story at WBUR News