MARSHFIELD, Mass. — April 9, 2013 — In the days since U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren visited Marshfield to listen to concerns of local fishermen, apprehension remains in the community about the industry’s future.
During the senator’s April 2 visit, the room at Haddad’s Ocean Café overflowed with approximately 40 representatives of the industry from Marshfield and Scituate. Many were owners of local commercial boats.
“I am interested in learning what we can do to make Washington less harmful for you,” Warren said to the fishermen. “I want to be the best possible partner to you.”
After telling the room she hoped to learn about the issues concerning local fishing businesses she said, “I am worried about the future. I know these towns will survive. There are other economic pieces to these towns. But they won’t survive, as we’ve known them. I want to get this right; I want to spend the time listening.”
Many in attendance expressed gratitude for the support of Warren and Senator Lisa Murkowski (R- Alaska) for their sponsorship of a fishermen’s relief fund. But Frank Mirarchi, a Scituate fisherman for over 50 years, said due to recent catch reductions, there would not be enough fish to keep fishermen in business.
“We desperately need to keep enough fish in the system for our programs to sustain themselves,” he said. He added that at Roche Bros. supermarket, which tries to keep locally sourced fish, only one item in the case was from the local community.
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