Stonington fishermen

Bobby Guzzo, captain of the Jenna Lynn, chafes under the federal regulations that govern his work.  He shuffles through a pile of papers looking for a copy of the regulations to show me and notices a power switch is off.

“Jeez!” he says.  “They’re gonna call me.”  He points to a small box on the wall then flips a switch.  The green power light comes back on.  This GPS devise constantly tracks and reports the boat’s location to the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection.

Bobby launches into a recap of the regulations.  “I used to be able to fish 48 days in the winter for flounder and cod.  Now they’re cutting us back to 24 day.  Not only that, they say they’re going to cut us back on time we spend in a protected area.  We'll have 50% less time to fish.  And they are cutting the poundage we can land.  It used to be 1,500 pound, but they might change that amount for this winter’s catch.”

“We waste so much!” Bobby says in frustration.  “The Jenna Lynn’s nets are 100 feet wide.  A single drag can take an hour or more.  Once the nets are back on board, the catch rides along a conveyor belt and we sort it.  We’ll pull in three sizes of fish.  Some three-dollar fish, some two-dollar fish, and some one-dollar fish.  So which do I keep?”  He shrugs to indicate the economics are self-evident.  “It’s not like walking through a garden to harvest tomatoes, you know.  I get what I get in those nets.  So I take my three-dollar fish home and throw the rest back.  Some of them might make it after I throw them back, but not a lot.”