It's commercial fishing week at FTR, or seems to be turning into it.
Who would have thought that ordering the Friday night fish fry down at the Bucksnort Tavern would link you to the shadowy world of organized crime? The Toledo Blade reports that
The fate of commercial fishing in Ohio waters of Lake Erie is at a tipping point in the wake of a yellow perch rackteering scandal in which 10 individuals and five businesses have paid fines totaling $356,000 for their part.
A yellow perch rackteering scandal. Now I really have heard it all. The article doesn't give many details about the scandal, but I gather it has to do with overfishing. The upshot of this episode is that commerical fishing in Ohio may efffectively come to an end. Fishermen complain that they cannot afford to comply with new rules and monitoring procedures set forth in response to the violations, and the state plans to buy up and retire the 18 remaining licenses for commerical fishing in its waters.
Although sport and commerical fishermen often find themselves at odds, I do think it's a shame to see this sort of livelihood pass away. People who make their living in close contact with a particular piece of land or water add a significant kind of realism to a society focused on abstractions, illusions, and symbols, and there are fewer and fewer of them.
Tags: Fishing; Lake Erie; Ohio
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