Response from The Director of RIDEM

[bridgebastard]

I am one of the many commercial fishermen working on these herring.To those of you that dislike it well dont use bait anymore. I supply fresh brined herring to many local bait shops. I am also an advocate for removing these vessels from state waters. I phoned director Coit,Mark Gibson,and Robert Ballou the day we saw these vessels . The next call went out as my captain and our crew watched one of these vessels destroy a local commercial vessels gear,entangle said vessel with another , and endanger the lives of the crew on two vessels. We would have been the first responders to this if the two vessels had capsized . We as commercial fishermen have helped to coordinate rescues,and save lives. We are all in this together, try not to put all commercial fishermen in the same category. Many of us are conservation minded recreational fishermen as well.