You Can Smell the PEW from Here

It appears we have entered a new era in the fishing industry, with warrantless searches like this. Before, it was just dirty tricks by the industry 'winners' in the rationalization fight, like destroying computers, bullying at public meetings, and black-balling in the markets. The big fishing and processing corporations are run by non-boots-on-deck fishermen and have taken all they could get away with. Public servants have entered 'The Game of Thrones' in droves now it appears. 

If you examined law enforcement academy curriculum you might find a disturbing lack of disparity between surveilling known terrorists and folks simply being good citizens in our participatory political system. Or should I say our former participatory political system..People in power in even the smallest Alaska communities are loath to share anything they have and a well researched vote is getting rarer and rarer.. 

Fishermen of all sorts took their cue from the Dirty Harry approach (not that they needed much encouragement to fish dirty) and it was easy for the PEW Charitable Trust to see this as the main problem, but it isn't. Fisheries management should have started industry reform at the top and worked down.

And in a microcosm of industry vigilance gone awry, some Alaska Governor saw fit to take salmon fisheries enforcement away from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, who had some very conscionable 'wardens' and effective programs, and give it to the Alaska State Troopers, who have been hardly effective. And in fact the Troopers sadly dropped the ball on some recent famous fisheries violations. In fact they destroyed the evidence to protect the violator. IT'S NOT THE FAMILY FISHERMEN, (AND THEIR COMMUNITIES WHO YOU PUNISH) WHO IS AT GREATER FAULT HERE. If you did a study of who is catching and destroying the fish they don't have a permit to sell, I'd bet you'd find the VAST majority is caught by factory trawlers and other large multi-vessel fishing companies. And I'll further wager that PEW will never be the one to do that study, as it refutes the main catch share rationale that owners of the resource are better stewards of it..

This from one of my correspondents:

  "The old fellow in the article they raided looks Native American. Many native men & women are veterans who volunteered to risk their lives. This guy is in all likelihood merely standing up for the freedom he once fought to protect. The freedom of the individual. The antithesis of monopolistic rationalization.

  The rationalization binge began with the PEW Charitable Trust study on the sea & fisheries. Our oily Governor Knowles served on it with di-stink-tion. The PEW study was conceived in the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. A poll at the time voted big oil as the greatest threat to the marine environment. Sun Oil, the parent of PEW, sought to alter that public perception with the study, adroitly shifting the burden to independent commercial fishermen as the true scourges of the sea.

  Fishermen who had just gone all out to clean up EXXON's oil spill, and attempt to salvage the coasts their livelihood depended on.They lost fisheries, marriages, even lives in the process. So Big Oil, out of gratitude for the millions of man hours spent by fishermen, crews, & coastal residents to save them form themselves, whose heroic efforts on their behalf the world applauded, now became the targets of corporate denigration by the PR gurus of the petroleum industry. And in (ex-Governor)Knowles case a PR screwyou.

  And as rationalization has taken hold, fewer numbers of fishermen have resulted in an eroded political base to protect their livelihoods at the ballot box; but the concentrated wealth of the allocation owners has greased the wheels of political justice to the point where they're even harassing sick old men who haven't the energy to stand up.

   The next time there is an Exxon Valdez in some remote area, who will be left to save Big Oil from itself? Fewer fishermen means fewer cleanup vessels in a time of emergency. It's like the parable of the farmer (or fisherman) and the snake. See, this farmer was driving his beat up truck down a dusty road when he saw an injured rattlesnake crying for help. So he told it not to worry. Took it home, the wife fed it soup and made a bed for it. Soon it waxed healthy, and took walks with the farmer. Just as the farmer was finally bidding it goodbye, the snake bit him. And as he lay dying, he asked the rattler,"How could you do this to me?" It answered, "YOU KNEW I WAS A SNAKE WHEN YOU PICKED ME UP".

   Come across any snakes lately?"

  Another view of one of the fishing industry's favorite snakes - "PEW was partially responsible for the state of the estimated 20 Billion dollar (art)collection before its acquisition. Former board members have stated that they believe the collection and its building was allowed to deteriorate in order to generate the crisis Pew needed to have the trust dissolved by the government and the collection moved. Pew has benefited financially via till-share from the relocation to museums which charge admission."

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From: John Enge
Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2012 9:43 AM

You guys in Nome, who have been tailed by the police and had your phones tapped for trying to bring transparency to local fisheries, can be thankful you haven't been harassed to the degree of these fishermen in the article below.

To: ENGE
Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2012 9:44 AM
Subject: raids copy.pdf (application/pdf Object)

 

http://www.savingseafood.org/images/raids%20copy.pdf