To the editor:
The day boat fishing fleet is like the canary in the catch share coal mine — we may be the first to go, but not the last.
The "fat cats" left in the fishing industry may not be concerned about little birds, but we are indicative of the climate.
Ecofrauds, media-presstitutes, mismanagement and crony-capitalism have us all debilitated as fishermen. The donkeys and elephants in D.C. are bloated with moneyed interests.
Such appetites demand to be constantly fed, and the global corporations happily comply; "Greasing" the way to ocean privatization it seems.
Ocean real estate bubbles to burst are vast.
Fish commodities for investors and ownership of fish.
Subsidized windmill projects designed-to-fail.
Aquaculture degrading our waters and bodies.
Marine Life Protection Act areas that big oil promotes.
Drilling for oil and gas unleashed.
The ocean corporatization we are seeing now will not benefit the citizens. Oceans should not be for sale. Privatizing profits and socializing losses is where it all leads.
Our resources should be utilized as jobs, not exploited by transnational companies.
Washington signed many American jobs away with the North American Free Trade Agreement. They have spent us and our children into gigantic debt. Now our oceans are to be auctioned to pay for their mistakes? How can you put a price on our ecosystem, commerce and rights?
Together fishermen, businesses, environmentalists, and concerned citizens can "Keep Fishermen Fishing." Please come join us in D.C. on March 21 to tell politicians, start working for people not corporate profits — the first important step being to fix and reform the Magnuson-Stevens Act — now.
Fish or cut bait? The choice is yours. Please ensure your children have a future.
Remember the old Native American proverb: "We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children."
MARY JANE de POUTILOFF
Provincetown, Mass.
and Harrington, Maine
