THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 1, 1995 TAG: 9509010019
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A16 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 40 lines
I have read over the past eight years about the commercial fishermen, ``watermen'' as they are called, with an escalating sense of resentment. Several articles have depicted them as poor souls against whom the government has pressed unreasonable restrictions. They whine about how their fathers and grandfathers fished this area all their lives with no problems and about how the government no longer will let them make a decent living.
Have they ever considered that their fathers and grandfathers are at least partly responsible for the depletion of fish in the oceans and bays? Just look at the whale situation. Had it not been for governmental intervention worldwide, the whale population would be extinct. Every one would have been killed before whaling stopped.
Is this what the watermen want for the fish they catch for a living? What would they do then - complain because no one told them? Isn't a better solution to regulate than to exterminate? If fish are scarce, some will stop fishing. We may need a commercial-fishing-license lottery with only a set number of licenses issued.
It is time that the watermen looked at the whole fishing scene in a different light. The fish and crabs don't belong to them. The fish and crabs that live in public waters belong to everybody who lives in America, not just the ones who get a boat and go fishing.
The public, through government licensing, allows those who care to collect the fish in reasonable quantity to transport them to market for sale for whatever profit can be made. If there is not enough profit then, there must be too many fishermen.
PHILIP M. PIPER
Norfolk, Aug. 29, 1995 by CNB