December 16, 2019 — We here at FishOn are simple folk and we live by some pretty simple rules. Rule No. 1 is why stand when you can sit. Rule No. 2 is that any meeting that lasts more than 15 minutes and involves more than three people generally is a colossal waste of time for everyone.
The same principle, of course, can be applied to the various pledges, promises and plans issued by anyone running for elective office. And that brings us to our own Sen. Elizabeth Warren and her seemingly bottomless capacity, in her quest for the presidency, for issuing plans to cure everything but the common cold.
Warren’s campaign last week released its most recent plan — a Blue New Deal for Our Oceans — and let’s just say this is not the most fishing-friendly document on the shelf.
The 15-page document touches on many issues. It addresses expanding offshore renewable energy and building climate-ready fisheries. It talks about expanding community-based seafood markets and investing in regenerative ocean farming and building climate-smart ports.
It urges the protection of ocean habitats and the restoration of marine ecosystems. It calls for the end of offshore drilling and makes the case for that old environmental crowd-pleaser, expanding protected marine areas that would be closed to commercial fishing.
And on and on and on. It’s a Utah lake. About a mile wide and an inch deep.
But nowhere in those thousands of words spread across 15 pages does the plan directly address the plight of the commercial fishing industry and the fishermen who have as much at stake in the blue economy as anyone.