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- America imports 80% of the fish it consumes, because the amount we catch doesn't satisfy the demand for fish
- Government implements Days at Sea program to limit how many days fishermen are allowed to spend fishing-- the fishermen are upset that government tries to control the problem instead of coming up with another solution that doesn't target them
- There is a ridiculously high barrier of entry (is that the right term?) for the fishing industry. If you're not part of a fishing family but want to become a fisherman, the cost of permits, boats, etc. can amount to $500,000 per boat.
Problems
- Fishermen are unhappy with the fact that they are only allowed to fish a limited number of days. limited as in 26 out of 365. (To be honest, I'd be unhappy too.)
- If they fish on a good day, they catch too much and there's bycatch. If they fish on a bad day, they don't catch anything at all.
Wiki Markup \[Many\] Fishermen don't believe that that there's an issue with overfishing. Their view: there has been some shift in the populations of fish, but there ARE still fish in the ocean, and there are definitely fish in the closed areas. Scientific data tells them that the fish populations are declining, so the government tells them to stop fishing. Scientific data tells them that the fish populations are still declining, even when they've cut down on the amount they're allowed to catch, so they feel it's not entirely an issue of catching too much fish.
- Fishermen think scientists don't believe/understand them and their trade.
- closed areas and quotas change frequently, making it more complicated for them to determine where they fish if they fish at all.
- Can't make a living off fishing anymore, and are discouraging kids from going into the trade. Fishing will be gone in two generations unless something is done.
- Fishing is a scattered industry made of small businesses, and fishermen have no representation in Washington, i.e. weak lobbying, etc.
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