spreading the word

August 26, 2010
Spreading the fishermen's word

By Richard Gaines Staff Writer

As if on cue, the rains vanished, the sun came out and a flotilla of fishing boats arrived from points north and west at the mouth of Vineyard Haven harbor Thursday to execute a flawless demonstration of seamanship for the national news media and President Obama.

And while the president was playing golf during the midday exercise, Boston and Providence TV news crews were among those on board the lead fishing boat in a demonstration designed to spread the word of New England fishermen's plight.
The nub of the dispute centers on the administration's push to carry out tight catch allocations tied to stock data that is facing a growing number of questions — all under a new federally-backed economic system that encourages fishermen to buy, sell or trade catch shares and their permits.

Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has acknowledged that the catch-share policy will ensure that a "significant fraction" of the small independent boats are driven out of business.
Together with a full-page paid ad in Tuesday's Vineyard Gazette, Thursday's marine informational picket line called understated attention to the plight of the region's commercial and recreational fishing industries.

The letter, presented by the Northeast Seafood Coalition and written by Gloucester fisherman Russell Sherman, presented his personal story outlining the issues that Thursday's procession vivified for dramatic effect.
Undertaken independently, the letter was crafted in Gloucester by the Northeast Seafood Coalition, while the idea for the protest demonstration was hatched in New Bedford and Point Judith, R.I.
"The two were not coordinated," said Jackie Odell, executive director of the coalition, the region's largest commercial fishing industry group.

The decision to take advantage of the president's presence in New England was made by commercial fishing interests in the southern New England ports in consultation with leaders of the Recreational Fishing alliance — the group that hatched the idea for a national protest unifying roughly 5,000 recreational and commercial fishermen at the U.S. Capitol in February.

On the Vineyard, the two dozen or so boats organized into a procession and circulated sharply for about an hour before breaking up with some boats heading out to Georges Bank and others heading in with their catch, according to those at the scene.
But the key to the long-term success of the operation, organizers acknowledged, is the reaction of the news media represented on the deck of the lead fishing boat — the New Bedford dragger Bulldog — along with the presidential press corps ensconced on Martha's Vineyard with the president and his family.
"This has been successful already," Jim Hutchinson, managing director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance, said in a phone interview. He was with the fishing vessel Bulldog, a high-line dragger with Vito Giacalone, policy director of Gloucester's Northeast Seafood Coalition, in the wheelhouse.

Hutchinson said the flotilla, echoing a much smaller demonstration last summer, has tapped the interest of national media outlets that had not, for the most part, been involved previously.
A Los Angeles Times blog, for example, previewed the action on the Vineyard with pointed commentary that read, "having successfully shut down an estimated 23,000 American oil drilling jobs off the Gulf Coast, citing possible environmental concerns, the Obama administration is now moving on New England fishermen."
"The immediate boat protest," L.A. Times blogger Andrew Malcolm wrote, "is about the claim the feds are using bad science to set extremely limited area fishing allotments, certain to wipe out many traditional private family businesses."

Hutchinson said the small business focus of the fishing industry is striking a growing chord among national media.

"The fishing industry is so representative of what's going on in the country — mostly mom and pop businesses, local charter captains and hotels," said Hutchinson. "Here we are, we're not asking for public assistance or a handout, just helping hands. We're putting this industry on the front pages where it belongs."
"We're gaining momentum." said Joel Hovanesian, a Point Judith, R.I., commercial fisherman who joined Thursday's cavalcade on the way to Georges Bank for business.
He and Rhode Island fisherman Tina Jackson, a co-organizer of the event at the Vineyard and the Washington protest last winter, worked the Fox TV news beat in New York last week to focus attention on the boat parade, and found receptive ears.
The infusion of support follows longstanding pushes for regulatory changes from Congressman Barney Frank and U.S. Sen. John Kerry, high-profile Democrats with close ties to the president, along with Republicans such as Sen. Scott Brown and North Carolina GOP Congressman Walter Jones, whose district includes the Outer Banks.

"The idea was for us to draw attention to the crisis," said Hovasenian. "I guess the success depends on how much attention the media gives us — and