Where are these people going to go to work once they have lost their jobs and there are catch shares? There is nothing, there is nothing. A boat owner will sell his permit, will lease his permit, he will get a little bit of money but what happened to crew members whose been on the deck, worked boats for 30 years, they get nothing. Those issues have never been addressed.
Actually, one time I asked Allen Peterson who used to be the divisional director and he said, “Well, my job is to save fish. Your job is to save fishermen.” So that’s what’s happening. And now they are admitting there are going to be lost jobs, but nothing has been done for them. And yet, under this economy, President Obama every day preaches about creating jobs. And in an industry with a rebuilt fishery, we are losing jobs.
The fact that I have always been concerned about all through the years, you know it – it’s about the people. Magnuson does allow for people, the effects of the regulation has on the people, the effect on their lives and the economic effect on the people.
IIn 1994, we opened the Fishermen’s Assistance Centers in Massachusetts and then there was one in Maine and we were open for 12 years. I knew this because I ran the Gloucester Fishing Assistance Center and I was committed to the one in New Bedford and the one in Hyannis.
Never once in all these years did anybody came to me or to my superior and ask who are these people that have been affected, how have they been affected.
During those twelve years we wrote Amendment 5, Amendment 7, Amendment 9, Amendment 13 and now we’re in Amendment 16 (2009) because we closed the center in 2006.
Because the consolidation that took place after 1995 to 2003-2004, it’s immense. We had the 50 percent consolidation of the New England and Massachusetts Fishing Fleet.
When you talk about a community like Gloucester or New Bedford, they have nothing else but fishing. These people, today, are on welfare and nobody has looked at these people. And in the ’90s the economy was great, we couldn’t train people fast enough to get jobs and in the 2000, there are no jobs.
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