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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 33 Number 8
April 2006
Editorial
Community helps ready us for challenges
The word community has a dual meaning. It can be the place where people live, but it also can be a group of often diverse individuals who agree to work together toward the same goal. And in that context, community can be a powerful thing.
In the fishing industry, people come together in all kinds of communities -- fishermen’s associations, fishing co-ops, cooperative research networks, fishermen’s memorial committees, political lobbying groups, and service organizations, to name a few.
Several examples of the important and often life-changing accomplishments achieved through these communities are detailed in this issue of Commercial Fisheries News.
Hundreds enthusiastically pitched in during the Maine Fishermen’s Forum annual auction, raising enough money in just hours to give 26 sons and daughters of fishing families each a $1,000 scholarship for college.
More than 200 people from around the region gathered for the fifth annual Northeast Seafood Coalition fund-raiser. The event not only raised tens of thousands of dollars, it drew influential state and local politicians, a testament to the strength of unity.
Another 200 people opened their hearts and wallets during a spontaneous fund-raiser hosted by the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen’s Association (CCCHFA) for Dave Ednie, a young family man who has provided electronics service to the fleet for years and recently lost an arm to cancer. The event raised $22,000 in a single night.
The Point Club board of directors agreed to spend up to $50,000 to help put safety equipment on its members’ boats. Now, at least 130 fishermen are going to leave port wearing inflatable PFDs. And, by demonstrating just how easy they are to use, they will convince others to do the same.
There are many more examples of fishermen working together for the common good: the Massachusetts Fishermen’s Partnership health plan; the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives activism on offshore energy issues; the Maine Fishermen’s Wives support of families in times of loss; the New Bedford Mayor’s Seafood Industry Advisory Task Force’s extensive safety training program; and Maine’s Working Waterfront Coalition’s campaign to preserve fishermen’s access to the sea.
Some of these and many other fishing groups regularly extend their involvement beyond their own borders in ways that help their neighbors understand the value of commercial fishing.
Through educational outreach and by offering opportunities for people to get together just for fun, CCCHFA has become an integral part of the greater Chatham, MA community and fishing is a known and respected industry in town. The Point Club’s safety efforts have attracted the attention, respect, and financial support of local businesses and service organizations. Organizers of the Working Waterfront Festival in New Bedford have presented commercial fishing to the public as a proud, professional industry. With a dual education and fund-raising campaign for a Zone C lobster hatchery, Penobscot East Resource Center has drawn financial support from zone lobstermen as well as town meetings, area businesses, and local residents.
All of these community efforts have had another important effect. They have given people a reason to get together to talk and to know each other better. They have helped hundreds of fishermen come to believe that what they have to say has value. And they have allowed fishermen to build organizations that are capable of quickly and effectively responding both to political challenges and personal tragedy.
Commercial fishermen in these parts are still fiercely independent individuals, but many have realized that coming together in community is for their own good as well as for the greater good. Everyone is the better for it.
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