Welcome to the World of Commercial Fishing

In the fishing world, it feels like we have been unofficially silenced – anything we say or do will be used against us in a court of public opinion. It will be seen as a crime against something by someone, somewhere. It will create controversy, uprise citizens to call elected officials hammering on about these obscene catches out on the coast. Commercial fishermen share a picture of a nice legal catch – a good day at work that they wish weeks for – and are instantly demonized by the other side for catching so much despite it being sustainably harvested within regulation.

These onlookers do not see the weeks of empty boats, fishermen coming home with nothing but fuel bills and disappointment. Spending the evening listening to their crying wives wonder how they are going to pay the mortgage and not lose the house….again. Or do these spectators see the children embarrassed because they get free lunch and can’t play sports after school because they have to help on the boat. Shouldn’t a person be proud of their hard day of work that finally brought home a decent paycheck?

This is a challenging enough industry to be in but to add the constant criticism from the other user groups is frustrating and demoralizing. We are monitored not only by fishery managers but by private anglers and their special interest groups. These are people who are privileged to be in a position to take weekends off from work to go fishing for fun. They take a family road trip to the coast and get their outboard wet for a couple days so they can justify the outrageous expense to their wife over grilled fish. They feel like one flounder per person per day for two weeks a year is not enough. They see these commercial boats catch 200 pounds a day during their two weeks, then want to know why can those guys do that and they can only catch one?

The answer is simple – there are 11 million people in North Carolina who depend on just a couple thousand commercial fishermen to harvest fish for them. The price per pound you pay at the fish market is paying for the fishermen to go get it for you, you are not really buying the fish. The fish is a public resource that everyone collectively owns – you are paying the commercial fisherman a service fee per pound to use their expertise to harvest the public resource (seafood) for you.

So you can also see it as there are 11 million people in North Carolina who could decide to go harvest it themselves right? So that’s what many did, according to DMF there were 2.1 million recreational trips that targeted Southern Flounder in 2020. These trips totaled 456,636 pounds of Southern Flounder – well over the approved removals of 152,808 pounds the recreational user group was allocated for the year in the fishery management plan.

This is the center of the conflict right – the recreational side harvests too much fish but instead of controlling their harvest, they lobby for more fish to be allocated to their side to “meet demand.” Fishery management plans set an overall annual catch limit and distribute it among user groups (commercial and recreational). So the only way to get more fish is to have quota reallocated from one sector to the other sector. This is where special interest groups representing recreational anglers come into play.

We don’t have that level of representation or the funds to get it. Commercial fishing is not like a traditional job, we do not get a salary or benefits. We get paid per pound for our harvest – or “how many people did I catch fish for today” and most days, nature does not want to give us much to share. There is no way to project earnings – you have no idea how much you will catch or what the market will pay. Last week, a boat down below went out for six days and made only $38 profit. That means the crew spent six days working for nothing. These guys had to go home and tell their wife that despite working like a dog for over 100 hours that week I do not have a paycheck to show for it. (This leads into the conversation of how cheap imports are affecting the US seafood market…)

This is a space for our stories to live, I want people to see our real lifestyle. I do not mean to be controversial, but I suppose it is a byproduct of being passionate and protective of my way of life. It’s old school, a demanding but fulfilling lifestyle that most cannot fathom unless they were raised on a small farm. I want people to see commercial fishermen as the hero not the villain like we have been falsely painted as. I want people to realize that it is ONLY because of commercial fishermen that you are able to buy seafood at the store and eat it at restaurants. Without fishermen, the average American would not have access to domestic seafood at all in this country – that is a dystopia I hope to never experience.

Commercial fishermen have become so scared of controversy because it feels like our livelihood is constantly at risk. For example, an inshore fishery can be taken away within two weeks and a proclamation – our haters thrive on this set-up and the inherent weakness it has caused us. Nobody wants to put their livelihood at risk, I know and understand better than most. We have state and federal fish dealer licenses – which means we signed away civil liberties and in exchange we get to buy and sell seafood in the United States. This allows fishery enforcement officers to visit 24/7 without a warrant to search our establishment to ensure compliance with regulations and they will do it. The same goes for commercial fishermen – their vessels can be searched at any time without a warrant as well.

So not only does a commercial fisherman risk upsetting the masses with a photo, but they could also risk putting a target on their back. I am constantly reminded that the squeaky wheel gets the grease… But I always think – there was a reason the wheel was squeaking and now it’s not so at least its fixed right?

If we spend our entire days, weeks, months, years, worrying about what people will say what will we accomplish? Not much. I know because I have done it for over a decade and fisheries are no better today than ten years ago. Now, I have my survival suit on and am prepared to fall overboard. At least I was able to get my mayday call out. So this is my mayday call – let’s talk about the future of fishing and ask: how is access to American seafood going to be protected for all citizens, not just those who can catch it themselves.