An Open Letter to the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council

"If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in government to the utmost."
-Aristotle

By Terry Haines - Dear North Pacific Fisheries Management Council:

How are you? People are still talking fish politics here in Kodiak.

The other day I darted into Kodiak's Harborside Coffeeshop, rather than ramble down the ramp to the inevitable gearwork that waited for me on D float. Sitting there by himself muttering into a double tall mocha was the great thinker Aristotle. Since his retirement he has jigged for cod out of Kodiak on his boat, the "Logos".

"No ethics left." I heard him grumble. "Every man for himself. Bartertown, that's what it is. Two lobbyists enter one lobbyist leaves. Welcome to Thunderdome, baby!"

"What's happening A-Stot? You look as low as a rock sole."

"I have been going to meetings of the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council."

"That would do it."

"It has been over two thousand years since I did my award winning series of books and seminars on ethical behavior in government. But when I go over there to talk to them about privatizing the Gulf of Alaska I find a pack of paid mercenaries scrabbling over their respective piles of gold coin."

"Oh yeah, you wrote the book on ethics."

"Yes, but I got hosed on the royalties. Christian and Muslim thinkers cut and pasted my stuff like crazy. I just wish the NPFMC had."

"Yeah, it's a lousy system, but what are you gonna do? I mean, if the privatization of the fish in the ocean that have fed us since the dawn of man is unethical, shouldn't it be illegal?"

"Not the same thing, thou dullard. A pack of dogs has laws. But only humans can be ethical, or unethical. This is because humans have the unique ability to guess what the ultimate outcomes of their actions will be. If your actions harm the community, and you must live in that community, you have indirectly harmed yourself. A few people were very rich during the Dark Ages, but even for them it was a lousy time to live. Warring factions fought for dominance without regard for the fabric of civilization that benefits everyone."

"OK, I haven't had my breve yet. Slow down a little. Are you saying that the lobbyists representing boat owners and big corporations are just like marauding Visigoths? Aren't they honor bound to represent their client's interests? What's unethical about that?"

"Ethics is not a book of laws. It is a skill, like football. You can't pass a law that that requires a man to play football well. It must be learned. Examination of New Zealand's privatization programs and Bering Sea Crab Rationalization should have taught us lessons about the destructive potential of such Limited Access programs for working fishermen, their families and their communities. The ethical thing to do would be to correct these programs to mitigate the harm to your friends and neighbors."

"Yeah but aren't the lobbyists being paid to get as much as they can for their clients? Ethical for them is whatever is good for the client."

"Now you are at the heart of the matter. Ethics is all about finding something I like to call the Golden Mean."

"You lost me again A-Stot."

"What makes ethics a challenge is that it amounts to using your experience to guide your actions so they are not excessive or deficient."

"Not helping."

"Take the virtue of courage for example. Courage could be defined as a middle ground between two feelings, fear and confidence, as they relate to an action: a courageous act. Too much fear can lead to cowardice. Too much confidence can lead to a foolish, rash act. Likewise, a lobbyist who works to enrich his faction without regard to his responsibility to his community at large is not behaving ethically. It's like the Thunderdome."

"What?"

"Mad Max Beyond the Thunderdome. One of the great morality plays of your time. There are no ethics in Bartertown. There is only the Law of the Deal. The only crime is to break a deal, and the only justice is in Thunderdome, where one champion meets the other. One wins, one loses. In such a society there is no right or wrong; only strength and weakness. The fabric of civilization is unraveled. No one has the other guy's back."

"And that's what's happening at the Council?"

"Isn't it? Aunty Entity rules over a coalition of mercenaries while the MasterBlasters- sharp-eyed lobbyists, each riding the shoulders of a huge pile of corporate money- control the Council. Everyone- whether they represent processors or boat owners or villages or crewmen- is just trying to make a deal. And the disputes are decided by mighty lobbyists in the Thunderdome: the floor of the Council's chambers, The veterans of the ring are hard to beat: the mighty Mister T, the fiery Red Queen, the scrappy Bobby T and the scariest Master of all, the Incredible Uncle Ted, who rides the shoulders of the Senate Commerce Committee. With them you have to make a deal, or perish."

"Are you saying everyone at the meeting is Darth Vader? I've been to a few of them myself. I was surprised to find out that almost every one I met was a good person. Not a 'nice guy' but the type of person you'd have beside you on deck, or living in your neighborhood. And they are just looking out for their constituencies. What do you expect them to do? Stage a hippie sit-in while the guys who are willing to play the game carve up the resource between them? And if a lobbyist on the inside track spends his time and effort helping out the skippers and crew isn't he cheating the people who pay him to represent them? And if some of the resource is allocated to working fishermen, doesn't that come out of the share of his clients? Isn't that a disservice to them?" The breve was starting to kick in."

"Sure, the industry is full of fighters. They are used to competing for their share. But this is a football game with no referee. A Supreme Court with nothing but lawyers."

"What about governor Palin? She seems ready to get involved."

"That's true. She seems reluctant to give away the Gulf."

"And what about the new Fish and Game Commish? You gotta like Denby Lloyd."

"Yes. Gotta like Denby." He seemed to cheer up a little.

"So there is a chance. The Gov has put the brakes on the Gulf Ratz train. No decision until October. There might be a tipping point. If enough of the people who really make these decisions start to consider working fishermen and their towns, others might follow. But what would you have them do? You can't give quota shares to every skipper and crewman in the fleet. It would be a nightmare."

He pulls out a parchment and unrolls it on the table.

Problem: Privatization of ocean resources as a management tool has had a terrible side effect: from New Zealand to Alaska the fabric of our fishing communities has been shredded. Corporate ownership of the public resource has made a very few very rich. The rest- the skippers and crew who harvest the deadliest catch- are denied access to the ocean that has sustained us since man first went to sea in boats. The result has been the "China Effect": the ability of the annointed upper class to maximize their returns by paying fishermen only enough to "guarantee the worker's basic existence." A Federally mandated feudalism.

Solution: Creation of a Regional Fisheries Association for the benefit of working fishermen and their communities.

"How would it work?"

"The Magnuson Stevens Act allows for the creation of Regional Fisheries Associations to group like fishermen together for allocation of Limited Access Priveleges. Working fishermen, that is skippers and crew presently harvesting the resource, would be pooled together. A portion of the total allowable catch would be reserved to be harvested as usual by the traditional harvest boats but the applicable lease fee would be distributed among the active harvesters. Quota would be regionally linked, but not linked to any processor. Skippers and crew who find themselves consolidated out of a job would receive a one time "Buy Back My Back" payment, funded by the federal Government and repaid through a tax on the industry, just like the boat buyback program."

"Will they consider it?"

He bolted the rest of his mocha and said:

"He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god."

© AlaskaReport News