The American seafood economy is one of the last preserves of independent operators. It is little surprise it is the target of corporate take over. The system of catch shares and the administration's operation of them has set up the corporate control of our seafood. This will cause great harm to the fisherman, coastal communities and even just Americans that just want good fish. It doesn't seem even Mr. Frank or Kerry has much sway with the Obama administration regarding this issue. This mostly affects people in Democratic states and is pro big business, the GOP is not riding to the rescue.
It's a rigged game. Our nation considers foreign fish a free trade issue. We treat our domestic fish as an environmental issue. Who writes the rules? So we get cheap, unhealthy fish that is caught in environmentally destructive ways. There is a reason the administration encourages that.
The real surprise is that so many people that claim to hold anti-corporate, pro-environmental, looking out for the common person and organic, locally sourced produce values continue to run flack for the Obama administration.
Many people claim to be down with the 99%. They moan the loss of local hardware stores to the Home Depot, Bob's diner to McD's and our town's stores and markets to Walmart. The American fishing industry is one that we have Not Lost Yet. Sadly, the people that will rail against the corporate seafood establishment in 5 years are the ones that support the President and his policies today.
Those kind of folks are unwilling to make choices to preserve our domestic seafood and the million of Americans that provide it. They are the same people that mocked and cried jingoism when the Unions and Reagan launched their "Made in the USA" campaign back in the 1980's. Americans were told we were selfish pricks that didn't want to share our piece of the ever expanding pie with the people of our earth. Globalization didn't start out as a bad word.
In the end it matters little. The greatest threat to our fisheries, tourism and all coastal communities is President Obama opening up all this land to the oil companies. They have a horrible track record, especially under this administration.
We saw how the Gulf disaster turned out. Half that spill on the East Coast would be devastating in every way. The tourism loss in just New Jersey would slam the nation's economy. That Obama's game plan is to outsource the disaster to those that caused it, should give all of us pause.
