• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

The Daily News, Jacksonville, N.C., Patricia Smith Column: Film May Get Fishermen's Message Across

Posted on: Monday, 5 June 2006, 09:01 CDT

By Patricia Smith, The Daily News, Jacksonville, N.C.

Jun. 5--"You're killing me."

They are words I've heard at nearly every fisheries public hearing of consequence I've attended across the state for the past 10 years.

I'm sure the words were spoken well before I began covering marine fisheries issues, too.

Commercial fishermen have stood at podiums, one after another, and plainly stated -- sometimes politely, sometimes not -- that the myriad of regulations coming down on them would put them out of business.

I don't know if fisheries managers believed them or not -- not 10 years ago, anyway.

All the government's economic impact analysis showed the situation was not so dire as the fishermen said. One more rule would not hurt that much, so the analysis found.

Well, maybe that would have been true if regulations were the only circumstances commercial fishermen had to face.

But it is clear now that they weren't.

In addition to ever-growing regulatory constrictions, fishermen have seen a whopping increase in imported seafood that could supply a year-round demand at prices against which it was hard for the local guy to compete.

The money the fishermen get paid at the docks has hit bottom, while the price of fuel has skyrocketed.

And coastal development has boomed, creating a real estate market where the value of waterfront property is at a premium.

No wonder fish house owners are selling out.

I thought about all those fisheries meetings I've attended over the years as I watched "Wild Caught: The Life and Struggles of an American Fishing Town" this past weekend.

The film's director, Matthew Barr of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, gave me a copy a couple of weeks ago.

The 90-minute documentary chronicles the Sneads Ferry fishing community's fight to keep a way of life that has existed for 300 years.

The same story could probably be told about just about any other fishing community along the North Carolina coast.

Incidentally, you can see this documentary at 7:30 tonight at the N.C. Maritime Museum in Beaufort. Admission is free and open to the public.

The words I heard in the documentary were not new to me; I've heard them said over-and-over for 10 years now.

Now I wonder, with the state's commercial landings at an all-time low and with fish houses closing left and right, are fisheries managers finally listening?

Patricia Smith covers fisheries and the environment for Freedom ENC. Contact her at psmith@freedomenc.com or at (252) 808-2275.

-----

Copyright (c) 2006, The Daily News, Jacksonville, N.C.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

Source: The Daily News

More News in this Category