Anyone who fears the fishing industry is losing most of its youthful energy with an aging fleet of captains and crews certainly has reasons to worry. But for each of those reasons, I can think of quite a few young and enthusiastic fishermen and industry advocates who are going all out to make sure the industry is accessible and sustainable for their generation and many to come.
Brett Veerhusen, executive director of the Seafood Harvesters of AmericaOne of those stand-outs is Brett Veerhusen, who has been a drift-gillnet skipper in Bristol Bay and advocate for his fishery in the fight against Pebble Mine. Veerhusen recently helped launch the Seafood Harvesters of America. (See my story on this new advocacy group in the Around the Coasts section of our August issue and more on the role of young people in the industry in Senior Editor Linc Bedrosian’s Mixed Catch “Shrimping fits him to a Lil T” and Associate Editor Melissa Wood’s Coastlines “The fight for the future.”)
If you follow federal fish politics, you are well aware that many valiant efforts have been made toward national fishing advocacy groups. One of the things that makes this group different is that it’s based in Washington, D.C., and aims to springboard from the success Veerhusen and his colleagues at Commercial Fishermen for Bristol Bay had on Capitol Hill getting congressional support for EPA’s watershed assessment to help prevent the construction of Pebble Mine at the headwaters of Bristol Bay.
The Seafood Harvesters of America comprises more than a dozen commercial fishing associations from around the country and seeks to find and call federal attention to common ground for national issues that affect all U.S. commercial fishermen.
“Everything before has been done from a regional standpoint, a regional voice,” says Veerhusen, the association’s executive director. “We need a national voice.”
Chris Brown, the harvesters’ president and president of the Rhode Island Commercial Fishermen’s Association, kicked off the announcement of the new group with a splash by serving on the Future of American Fisheries panel with NMFS director Eileen Sobeck during Capitol Hill Ocean Week in June. I hope Veerhusen and his board of veteran fishermen can keep our fishing industry at the table in federal discussions that affect fishermen from coast to coast. Their collaboration represents the best this industry has to offer in experience, national representation and youthful energy. I have no doubt we’ll hear more from them and from Veerhusen in the years to come.
