F R O M T H E C R O W E ’ S N E S T
What Fishermen Want
The federal government is preparing a National Ocean Policy, also know as Ocean Spatial Planning. Two reasons often cited are increased use and the need to organize how uses will inevitably evolve. While there is not a lot of press coverage of the Ocean Policy process, there are at least two reasons why there should be.
First, among the identified users and issues are industries that will be new to the Gulf of Maine.
Some are linked to national security, which could give them considerable relative clout. The second is the federal government’s checkered track record with national policies. Urban planning, fisheries management, financial industry oversight, etc. That said, between the enactment and the writing of the federal checks comes the influence of lobbyists and corporations, who can get hold of the wheel and take things in unexpected directions.
Ocean planning is not just about new regulations on what is out there now, but about what will likely be out there soon. The industries and the players in this new ocean world will be big, monied and well connected. There will be opportunities, money and profits. Federal policy will establish a stable platform corporations in these industries can sell to investors. The development projects will not be “farm” scale.
If ocean development is going to happen, it should be orderly. We need a lot of alternative energy, cleaner oceans and fish.
How does the fishing industry keep what it has always had in the face of well financed challenges to it’s traditional rights to access? All of these interests cannot occupy the same space at the same time. There are bound to be boundary lines of some kind.
National security is wed to energy supplies. Food security and the balance of trade in seafood is wed to the supply of fish. The coastlines of the nation are a focus of national security more than ever. These are big players. Three cards that can carry weight in the hand that makes the decision about who gets what.
The Northeast Regional Planning Body meets to discuss what might be considered in a National Ocean Policy. That body of about 30 appointees is not a body of fishermen. The Planning Body will not make Ocean regulations, but it could influence them. It needs to hear what fishermen want and need.