Stand Together As A Fishery

By Dustin Schrimpsher, Communications Director of the North Carolina Fisheries and Tradewinds Editor

Writing the longlining story this month (Life On The Line) left a sick, sad taste in my mouth.
It wasn't the first time I'd seen or read about heavy-handed bureaucracies recklessly handing down inappropriate regulations. I've only been involved in the fishery for a few months and hardly a week goes by that I don't learn of such regulatory abuses occurring somewhere in the country.

Talking with long liners and packers who have spent their lives developing skills specific to the longlining industry, only to have the professional rug pulled out from under them, made a bubble burn in my chest.
I wasn't involved in fisheries when the Florida net-bans and Texas net-bans became a reality.

Knowing regulatory agencies practically dare commercial fishermen in those states to make a living makes me glad I wasn't here to see that ax fall.
Today I read over roughly nine pages of transcribed interviews with longline fishermen. I can describe the sensation as similar to watching car wreck footage. And with every bludgeoning clause and detail I said to myself "How could this happen?"

Read over the article and ask yourself the same question. I think we will all come to similar conclusions. And from there we should all go one step further to ask "How can we prevent this from happening again."

In fisheries there seems to be a very admirable mantra: If it can happen to my neighbor, it can happen to me.

To prevent this tragic scenario from occurring once again we must learn from the experience of the near-shore longine fishermen.

We must always stand together as a fishery. We must never concede that our actions have damaged our fishery where science does not prove it to be so. We must act not out of pride or hubris but out of principle and character. We must know our friends and our enemies for what they are. And, most importantly, we must remember that we undertake the fight not for a job, not for a hobby and not even for tradition that we hold dear—we fight this fight because we have families that deserve the lifestyle we've chosen and we fight this fight because we are right.