39 



July 8, 1996 



During President Clinton's first campaign to the White House, 

 he said, "This great country of ours was formulated from small 

 family neighborhood businesses on each corner of our great American 

 cities and towns." 



America's amall neighborhood businesses have and continue to 

 be the strength of our great economy. President Clinton has also 

 stated that his aim as president of the United States ie to returr. 

 to these neighborhood small businesses and to regain an even 

 stronger economy. 



K.ach fishing vessel in the port of Gloucester is a small 

 business employing three to eight fishermen per vessel. We have 

 thousands of these vessels up and down our coast. But unlike some 

 of our land based stores, the fishing industry generates 

 approximately 6.6 jobs for every fisherman that goes to sea- 



In Gloucester, Massachusetts, my home town and the oldest 

 fishing port in the country, one commercial fishing vessel buys ice 

 by the tons from the local ice company In addition that same 

 fishing vessel buys hundreds of gallons of fuel from local fuel 

 companies, hundreds of dollars worth of groceries from the 

 neighborhood grocery stores, and hundreds of dollars worth of gear 

 from the local ship chandlers. The fishing boats will also usually 

 spend hundreds of dollars for local service be that of engine 

 repairs and electronic repairs. 



When the vessel is finally ready to put to sea it has incurred 

 several thousands of dollars of expenses before it has left the 

 dock. This small business is already in the red before the engines 

 are started. An offshore Gloucester dragger will spend an average 

 ten days at sea. some of the time is spent traveling and some time 

 is spent in search of fish while the rest of the time is spent in 

 actually fishing for fish. If successful the vessel will return 

 with approximately 30,000 pounds of mixed groundfish. The crew will 

 spend the day helping to unload fish to the fish plants. That 

 vessel will again hire about six long shoremen to do the actual 

 unloading and create more employment. The plant that the fish is 

 sold to will hire dock workers, fish cutters, fork truck operators 

 and truck drivers, sales personnel and brokers. The fish will then 

 be distributed to either freezers, cold storage or to fresh fich 

 stores, creating still more employment for many small but life 

 giving oity businesses. 



Also a rlshing vessel yets hauled up on the railways or 

 shipyard for repairs. The other small businesses that we never 

 think about in reference to a fishing vessel are the intangible 

 insurance businesses that service the commercial fishing vessel. 



