For centuries, the “Sacred Cod,” a nearly five-foot-long wooden carving of a very important fish, has hung prominently above the chamber of the Massachusetts House of Representatives.
The Sacred Cod symbolizes the importance of fishing to America’s founding and present well-being.
Brave, hard-working fishermen have continuously plied their trade off the coast of Cape “Cod” since the early 1600s.
Continuously that was, until the Obama and Biden administrations kicked them out of their rich fishing grounds and proclaimed their waters a “national monument” with the stroke of a pen.
We have good news for the fishermen of Gloucester, New Bedford, and the rest of our historic ports.
Donald Trump also wields a presidential pen and just used it to give you back your livelihood.
CFACT senior fellow Bonner Cohen reports at CFACT.org that a presidential proclamation, Unleashing American Commercial Fishing in the Atlantic, “revokes the Obama and Biden era policy that prohibited commercial fishing within the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument … The marine national monument covers nearly 5,000 square miles on the edge of the continental shelf about 150 miles east of Cape Cod. The monument designation included a ban on commercial fishing, which Trump lifted in his first term. The Biden administration reimposed the ban in 2021, a step Trump 2.0 is now reversing.”
As Bonner reports, the cod and other fish species in question are migratory and were already well protected by federal law before radical eco-warriors got Obama and Biden to kick out our fishermen with a far-too-heavy federal boot.
In Gloucester, Massachusetts, stands The Man at the Wheel, a memorial to the thousands of brave, hard-working fishermen who over the centuries lost their lives keeping healthy dinners on our plates.
You probably read the book or watched the film “The Perfect Storm,” about the loss of Andrea Gail in 1991.
Last month, Lily Jean tragically went down with all seven hands. Her skipper, Accursio “Gus” Sanfilippo, was a fifth-generation Gloucesterman.
Federal policy should not be made in an ideological vacuum that eludes understanding of economics, science, and conservation.
We have had enough of bureaucrats who know nothing of our history, traditions, and, most importantly, the people most involved.
Thank you, President Trump, for giving our fishermen back their grounds.
Images Paul Keleher, Liberma, Creative Commons & 123rf