How American Fishermen Lost the Right to Fish

Check out this video from More Perfect UnionHow American Fishermen Lost The Right To Fish. The video dives into how the Catch Share system has consolidated fisheries around the country, promoting the growth of armchair fishermen and sea lords, while putting small-scale fishermen out of business. In fisheries that use Catch Shares, most fishermen have been forced to exit the industry. The Center for Investigative Reporting has linked Catch Shares to the loss of thousands of fisheries jobs. The small percentage of fishermen that remain are barely making ends meet, and as a result, often have to rent or sell their quota to multinational seafood companies and private equity firms. When that happens, we see stories like that of Blue Harvest play out – a big company shutters and files for bankruptcy, leaving a wake of fishermen and fishworkers out of jobs, and millions in unpaid debt to local businesses.