March 30, 2017 — One boat after another offloaded their catch at Gambardella’s Wholesale Seafood. A busy day for the seafood distributor but that’s not the norm these days. Fewer fishing boats are coming in because crews say they can’t afford to go out with limits on what they can catch.
“The regulations are outdated, the science is wrong, and we’ve been fishing under these conditions for too long,” said Bobby Guzzo a longtime fishermen.
He says they often have to throw back fish so they don’t go over their limits and those limits are based on what state fisherman are from even though they all fish the same federal waters. Connecticut limits are a lot lower than states down south.
“We’re all fishing in federal water, we’re all fishing together,” said Guzzo. “Why aren’t we all together?”
It’s a question Guzzo has been asking for years and now he and fellow fishermen are hoping to ask President Donald Trump. They are calling on him to make commercial fishing great again.
“We want to sit down with Mr. Trump hopefully,” said Guzzo. “It may be pie in the sky but we got to try to do something otherwise we’re going. And he has been listening. He seems to a few people. We need change.”