With Pirate season blooming early this year I can’t help but be consumed with paranoia. Somalian Pirates have made their first of potentially many attacks. However, Somalian politics and geography are not my forte. What is my forte? The ocean and the men who float around on it, not the pirates of course.
My men are reliable citizens who risk their lives so the good people of the world can fill themselves with delicious sea food, minerals, and vitamins. It is a shame that the ongoing fishing regulations are preventing these good men from doing their job to its maximum potential. With these regulations it is as if some states are treating their hard-working fishing men like pirates. They want fishermen out of the sea! It is as if the catch that the fishermen get is booty instead of a natural resource.
Have politicians forgotten that our communities have been living off fish and other sea food for hundreds of years? Is Moby Dick not the “Great American Novel”? Fish is our areas livelihood? What is New England going to become once our men can’t fish? How will we be defined? I live in the “Ocean State”, what good is that if my fisherman and I can’t celebrate the Ocean by receiving our livelihood and nutrients from it? Are we destined to become another tourist state? An over populated, under paid, lighthouse painting filled state that finds its only joy from other people wealth? While our own wealth and happiness is being regulated by people who have barely stepped foot on a dock, and who limit their perspective when it comes to the facts behind what it means to be a fishermen or part of a fisherman’s family.Are we being pirated by regulations? Are fishermen being treated like pirates?
Perhaps both.
It brings me to tears to think about the changes that have occurred within the fishing community over the past 50 years. I hear stories from older guys who talk about the “good ‘ol days of fishing”. When a crew could go out day fishing, catch 60 thousand pounds and sell it at a good price. Granted it means much more to guys who are out there fishing every week but, it affects me also. Behind every great fisherman is good woman. It would be harsh to say women bear the brunt of the stress that our fishermen suffer from however, it is not completely false.
Our poor guys are fighting for what they believe in and they are trying to keep an age-old tradition alive . At the same time they are supporting their families, risking their lives, and walking around on eggshells trying be civil about the new fishing laws. How much do we expect from them? They are Men, they are brave, and yet they are only human. We (humans) all have a tolerance and I believe my tolerance is up. We need to come together and make fishing what it use to be.
Girl meets Boy...Boy meets Girl... 