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We need to put these watermen's crime in perspective
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
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The Southern Maryland watermen accused of selling more than their allotted rockfish quotas do not deserve years in jail or fines of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Perhaps a few months in jail and tens of thousands of dollars in fines would better serve justice. A more realistic sentence that fits the crime would also prevent the ruin of the local seafood economy and the inevitable ripple effect it is already having.
Let's put this crime in perspective.
They were accused of stealing fish that were consumed as food on the open market. There was no waste. The rockfish were obviously abundant, or they would not have been able to catch and sell so many. The Maryland Watermen's Association has always argued that the fish population is cyclical impacting other fisheries: the more abundant the fish, the smaller the crab population because the fish feed on the young crabs.
The price the fishermen are accused of making per pound is ridiculous. They sold the fish at the dock for around $2 a pound, not the $5 a pound the feds statistically calculated. However, that $5-a-pound price might be what the fish was eventually valued at by the time the consumer paid for it at restaurant in New York or Washington, D.C.
If this was such a heinous crime, why did the feds let it continue for four years? And why would the federal government waste so many taxpayer resources on aerial surveillance and night vision on such a small crime when they should have been policing the mortgage and banking industries? Or our borders? Or why wasn't the Food and Drug Administration inspecting the other parts of our food sources?
Or better yet, why aren't the feds enforcing anti-pollution laws so we don't need fishing quotas?
This is not Enron. These fishermen did not steal anyone's pension. They did not cause anyone to lose their house, except some may now lose their own. They did not cause the banking industry to crash worldwide. Yet they are being punished as if they did.
These fishermen will not be hosting a spa weekend on the taxpayers' dime or giving out any bonuses to their crews before they go to jail. In fact, they'll be lucky to have their boats afloat when they return.
Andrea Watters, Great Mills
