Cod cut loss to city: $70M
By Richard Gaines
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A statutory need to address a reported widespread decline in the status of the Gulf of Maine cod was translated Wednesday into terms of a potential economic catastrophe for the New England groundfishing industry — with projections of dealing a $70 million hit to Gloucester’s economy alone.
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Richard Gaines reports some really heavy stuff today in the Gloucester Daily Times but other than people directly involved in the fishing industry locally and a few other folks that seem to weigh in on it outside of the industry I wonder if the general public has tuned it all out because it is so difficult to understand and or they gave up trying because it’s impossible to keep up with all the changes.
In either case there are some MAJOR MAJOR changes to the life and independent spirit of what so many people have clung to here for so long but it seems like people are resigned to feel like it’s all a done deal.
Like the people that think that the Government is ever going to allow the amount of fish that was once landed in this city to ever be harvested again, that’s just crazy. They would be nuts to because it would get us right back to the state of overfishing that got us into this mess in the first place. But now with Catch shares and the privatization of the industry and without provisions to make sure that fishing permits stay in the hands of independent fishermen I never thought I’d see the day but within our lifetime there likely will be very few independently owned fishing boats.
When you listen to the bananaheads at the meetings continue to cling on to the hope that this town is going to somehow revert back into the golden days of schooners or when our Grandfathers and Father’s age when millions and millions of pounds of fish were being landed here on a daily basis tell them to wake up.
It’s not “Times, They are A Changin’”
They’ve Changed.
Good Morning Gloucester 