Dear Editor:

It was more than a few years ago I was talking to a guy I went to school with who had become a lobsterman in his working life. He said, "You know, Jack, when the fishermen do well around here, everybody does well." I'd never thought about that before but as soon as he said it I knew it was right. Grocery stores, plumbers, house painters, lumber yards, car dealers, restaurants, schools, everyone benefits. Fishing was the foundational industry here nearly 400 years ago and it is still the core business along the Maine coast. It's one of the biggest reasons we have such a thriving and profitable tourist trade.

But now, and for the past few years, fishermen have been waking up worried about the developing threats to their way of making a living. As one lobsterman put it in the Working Waterfront a couple months ago, "There are dark clouds gathering over our business." Increasing temperatures in the cold water Atlantic, the growing scarcity and rising cost of bait and of fuel for the boat, depressed prices for their catch but staggeringly high retail prices in restaurants and seafood markets, the uncertainty of the effects of wind farm towers along the coast, and the encroachment of still further restriction on their gear and fishing areas. Lobstering has always been a hard business. It's getting harder.

Some of these threats are external some are internal, some are man-made some are natural, but they are all potential threats. The first line of defense for the fishing community is local and state government. This is an election year. Some of the people running are from families that have been here for generations, they grew up here, they went to school here, they work here, they married here, their children go to school here. Their future is here. They are invested in their community. They will defend it.

Cameron Reny knows whose side she's on.

John L Fitzpatrick

New Harbor