Keep it in the family

(from the May,  2008 issue of National Fisherman)

Ever get the idea that the commercial fishing industry isn’t doing as well politically as it could be doing? I sure do. And while it might be a function of my overly pessimistic nature, I doubt it – and I doubt that anyone reading this will see it that way either.

Folks, we’re getting beat. We’re getting beat in Congress and we’re getting beat in the White House. About the only place where we’re not getting beat is in the Courts, but that’s only because the laws haven’t been written or amended to that extent yet.

Why? One of the reasons is that we haven’t learned one of the lessons that are second nature to every effective lobbying group. That is, don’t air your dirty laundry in public.

Auto manufacturers are pretty good at competing with each other. I imagine that the competition to sell cars can get pretty cutthroat at times, but when it comes to national politics, they speak with one coordinated voice. Agricultural commodity groups are often going after the same markets, but when it comes to national policies, they all take the same tack. And it’s a safe bet that the anti-fishing envirorgs that are competing for the same prospective members and large but limited pot of foundation money have ongoing disagreements. But when it comes to attacking the commercial fishing industry, they’re all part of one big, happy family.

What about us? Let’s take two recent examples.

First we have the high profile conflict between the lobster pot fishermen and the draggers in Maine. I’m not taking sides here, but please consider the message that this ongoing issue has left the politicians – and the public – with. I’d bet that regular people don’t differentiate between pot fishermen, gillnet fishermen and otter trawl fishermen. To most folks a fisherman is a fisherman is a fisherman. And their take-home message from all of the media attention has to be “those commercial fishermen don’t even like, and they can’t even get along with, each other.” I’ll bet dollars to donuts that any bad feelings the public was left with will be directed as much at commercial fishermen in general as it will be at one group or another. Let’s also consider the politicians. They’re right in the middle of two strongly disagreeing factions of the same industry. Is that any way to garner political support for commercial fishing?

Then there’s the still simmering mid-water trawling issue. Again, the assumption is that the general public can differentiate between mid-water trawling and any other kind of commercial harvesting, or in fact even cares that any differences exist. You think?

At the end of the day, it’s most likely that people are going to be left with bad tastes in their mouths “because of trawling.” After six months, how many of them are going to differentiate between mid-water and bottom trawling? After another six months, between trawling and tub trawling? Or purse seining? Specifics will be forgotten but the anti-commercial fishing taste is going to stick with them, because so many people are working hard to make sure that it does.

Unfortunately, this issue has another significant downside. Implicit in some of the arguments is the charge that the management and enforcement systems are seriously flawed (actually, the charges have been explicit on occasion). If anyone thinks that this is anything but ammunition for the antis in their drive to make fishermen totally superfluous in the fisheries management system except in an “advisory” capacity, think again.

I’m sure that most of the fishermen immersed in these issues, or in any others that involve gear bashing of some form or other, would assure us that they are solidly behind a unified commercial fishing industry with a coherent and coordinated national strategy, but “this is something that is so obviously wrong that it needs to be fixed any way that we can fix it.” Remember singing as a kid “I’m rubber, you’re glue, your insults bounce of me and stick to you?” None of us are rubber, none of us are glue, and any insults stick to all of us.

Sit down with the fishermen on the other side and come to an accommodation. Not adequate science? Do what you have to do to make it adequate, but go after it together and abide by the results. For the future of the industry and for your future in it, keep it in the family. We all pay if you don’t.

Nils E. Stolpe