John Enge lived in Alaska for 50 years and now writes fisheries commentary and works to restore salmon runs in Southern Oregon. He has experience in a wide range of fisheries activities, starting with skiff fishing for halibut and gillnetting salmon as a teen. Post-college, he ran processing operations, was a loan officer to the fishing industry and Alaska’s only appointee in fisheries infrastructure development.
The Tyee, an online magazine from British Columbia, has an article on privatizing the rivers in B.C. Sound crazy? Think privatizing all the ocean’s fish like NOAA wants to do. British Columbia started this fish privatization business, and countries we sometimes compare them with, like New Zealand, were right there with them. Turns out, someone has been pushing these ideas in the think tank, the Fraser Institute, and now the Campbell government is fully onboard. ‘The Family” at C Street in Washington has also been preaching “privatization” to the Washington elite for decades: their “trickle down fundamentalism” would have the rich have it all and then bestow blessings on the rest of us as good Keepers of the Faith, and as their mood swings on any one day. Part of this mentality is that these rich and powerful folk can do no wrong, as they have a ‘mandate’ to govern, and be Keepers of the Wealth as well.
This is how really wrong these folks are. People have tremendous freedom in our countries, right? Then in the Fraser Institute’s mind, we have the freedom to sell ourselves into slavery as well! Isn’t all that convenient thinking for big fish companies who want to own the fish. Big political contributors/investors don’t want to actually be on a boat, but if they had a way to get the fish and get someone else to harvest their fish, they could be generous in return — wink, wink.
Ecotrust Canada came out with a socio-economic analysis of the Individual Transferable Quota system, or catch shares, that Canada implemented and it isn’t pretty. It’s called “A Cautionary Tale About ITQ Fisheries.” They call the new breed of landlord who has managed to buy all the shares and get people to go to sea for them — “sealords.” And as you can imagine, sealords wouldn’t pay much for the harvesting subcontracting service.
Tradition doesn’t have a leg to stand on anymore, thanks to various cultural revolutions. So do we just get over the fact that fishermen are going to be just equipment operators for the owners, at whatever pay is the whim of the day, and if they don’t like it, the owners will just hire lower paid help? Hence, freedom to enslave oneself.