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NEW YORK. MONDAY, MARCH 7, 1994 



U.S. Fishing Fleet Trawling 

 Coastal Water Without Fish 



By TIMOTHY EGAN 



SEATTLE, March 6 — For the 

 volunteers who count fish return- 

 ing from the sea to fresh water, 

 this has lieen the loneliest year 

 ever. The surging Pacific salmon 

 and steelhead are gone; what the 

 fish counters at the Puget Sound 

 ship locks see when they stare at 

 the glass wall separating them 

 from the water is nothing but a 

 reflection of their own faces. 



Across the country, in Glouces- 

 ter and New Bedford, Mass., the 

 story is the same. After 350 years, 

 the oldest American fishing area 

 is largely barren of the great 

 swarms of haddock, cod and 

 flounder that sustained more than 

 10 generations of New Englanders 

 and became millions of fish 

 sticks. 



The Atlantic fishermen have 

 asked that the Government treat 

 them like earthquake disaster 

 victims. Last week, they honked 

 their boat horns in Boston Harbor 

 to draw attention to their plight. 

 To some, it was a funeral dirge. 



Echoes of a Sad Song 

 From Chesapeake Bay, where 

 oystermen are fading like fog in 

 the afternoon sun, to the Gulf of 

 Mexico, where grouper and red 

 snapper are mostly a memory, 

 people who pull fish from the sea 

 for a living are singing the same 

 sad song. 



' (3ovemment officials say most 

 of the major commercial fishing 

 areas in this country outside Alas- 



ka are in trouble, and worldwide, 

 13 of the 17 principal fishing zones 

 are depleted or in steep decline. 



As for salmon in the Pacific 

 Northwest, and three main com- 

 mercial species in New England, 

 the decline is catastrophic — 

 threatening to wipe out not only 

 whole industries but also cultures 

 and communities that are fused to 

 the cycles of tide and sea cur- 

 rents. 



A Year Without Salmon 



For the first time, there may be 

 no ocean salmon fishing on the 

 West Coast this year, a situation 

 roughly akin to Georgia not pro- 

 ducing any peaches. 



Fishing communities in Massa- 

 chusetts are in such bad shape 

 that Gov. William F. Weld last 

 week requested emergency finan- 

 cial aid from the Federal Govern- 

 ment. Thousands of fishermen 

 are in "immediate danger" of los- 

 ing their homes and boats this 

 spring, Mr. Weld said. 



But aside from devotees of wild 

 fish, consumers may not notice a 

 shortage of fish at the supermar- 

 ket. In recent years, farm fish 

 raised in pens in Norway or South 

 America have flooded the market, 

 driving down the pnce of fish. 



In some cases, the lowered 

 prices have led fishermen to har- 

 vest more ocean fish in compen- 

 sation. About 40 percent of the 



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