OCEAN
OF TROUBLE
parts of the machinery — both delivering
impacts to, and absorbing consequences
from, the environment.
Accurately accounting for all the new
variables being introduced by ever-rising
carbon dioxide emissions will, of course,
be fundamental to this holistic management approach — though again, it’s all
just getting started. “The basic situation
is that consideration of climate change issues is beginning to be taken into account
[and] into management,” Fogarty says.
“But we have a long, long way to go.”
That’s cold comfort for Mirarchi. Inside the pilot house of his trawler, he
grips a Styrofoam cup of coffee and ticks
off the grim arithmetic that lies before
him. This, he says, will likely be his last
season as a fisherman. “Understand, I
was already at zero last year with quotas
for twice as much fish,” he says. “So you
do the math: If Frank is at zero with 2x
I DON’T REALLY
SEE, AT AGE 70,
GOING OUT AND
GETTING A JOB TO
PAY THE MORTGAGE
ON A BOAT THAT’S
LOSING MONEY.”
HUFFINGTON
06.23.13
fish, where is Frank with 1x fish? Somewhere below zero.
“I don’t really see, at age 70, going out
and getting a job to pay the mortgage on
a boat that’s losing money,” he continues. “My wife really doesn’t.”
Last September, as it was becoming
clear that the area’s groundfish anglers
would be facing steep cuts in catch allocations this season, the Commerce Department issued a disaster declaration
for the entire fishery, giving some hope
to Mirarchi and his fellow fisherman that
they might be able to weather another
bad year. Some funding for this was initially tucked into the aid package following Hurricane Sandy, but Republicans
in Congress ultimately stripped it out.
To date, lawmakers have been unable to
agree on funding for beleaguered fishing
communities in New England.
Asked if he was worried, Mirarchi
chuckles briefly before growing more
serious. “How would you feel?” he
says. “You spend your whole life doing something, and all of a sudden everything you learned, everything you
taught your kids, it’s worth nothing
— because it doesn’t make economic sense anymore.”
Tom Zeller Jr. is a senior writer covering the
environment and the recipient of a 2013-14
Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.