Beto O'Rourke promises to 'guarantee long-term survival' of nation's fisheries

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke, after visiting a small fishing business in New Hampshire a month ago, is releasing a plan Friday that his campaign says will “guarantee long-term survival” of the industry and the nation’s fisheries.

Visiting New England Fishmongers in Portsmouth in early September, the Democratic former U.S. House member was told by owners Capt. Tim Rider and Kayla Cox and their crew that small fishing businesses are having difficulty surviving due to an encroachment of large fishing corporations, the current trade war with China and warming ocean waters resulting from climate change.

Rider wrote in a letter to a Seacoast newspaper that O’Rourke is “the only presidential candidate that has ever cared enough to show up and listen.”

Fishing is a $5.4 billion industry nationally with 9.9 billion pounds of fish and shellfish caught in the U.S. in 2017, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce. While overall the industry is thriving, that is not the case for small fishing businesses.

Read more: https://www.wmur.com/article/beto-orourke-promises-to-guarantee-long-term-survival-of-nations-fisheries/29358225#