Fishing

No Luck with NOAA

By: Melissa de Haan Cummings - Aug 05, 2015

Fishing

Will you give me a ride
out to my boat?
Sure  Did you fix it?
Yah  Needed a new pump
For bilge?  No
To run cold water
Through the engine
Need that
I need gas
Annisquam?
Yah

Aren't you allowed to fish?
Yah  We're waiting for
a monitor from NOAA
My captain has to pay
seven hundred dollars a day
for him
Does he measure the fish?
Every one!  Every thing!
If we catch a small one
it counts against our quota
So your quota goes down
Like you can tell ahead of time
what size the fish will be!
How do you do that?
I dunno  Magic I guess
We have to have one
of them guys twice a week!
We barely get by
Have to pay for the fish
before we catch them
Before you catch them?
Fifty cents a pound!
We only get a dollar eighty five!
My captain's probably
going to retire next year
Is he old?  Fifty three
His mother keeps the books
pays taxes retirement
She says he can retire
I wish I'd had her take care
of my money ten years ago
You'd have something
Yah

I know someone from NOAA
dives on a cod farm
He should dive out there!
Yah  They think there's no cod!
Lobster traps are so full of cod
the lobstermen complain!
They think they know everything
When we're done there won't
be no more of us
When you're done NOAA's done!

Melissa de Haan Cummings
4 August 2015