Government failures destroyed commercial fishing, will destroy health care system

The codfish, the iconic fish of New England, is essentially gone — overfished and wiped out. Recent catches represent perhaps 1 percent of historic highs of the 1950s. The cod on your dinner plate most likely is now imported from Sweden or Iceland.

The demise of the cod began in the 1980s when liberal Massachusetts Congressman Gary Studds got together with conservative Interior Secretary James Watt and brokered a deal. That deal was the end of the cod.

The 1980s were then boom times for cod fisherman, until they weren’t, and the cod were gone by the late ’90s — and it was a good time to buy a fishing boat in Massachusetts. Today, stringent restrictions exist on cod fishing throughout New England but it’s too late — the cod are gone, nothing to restrict.

The Maryland state fish — the striped bass — is a similar story. No rules, no regulations, overfished and wiped out. Fisherman got rich in the ’70s, then a complete moratorium by the 1990s. A very careful management has brought the stripers back from the edge, for now.

In North Carolina it was the red drum. The craze for blackened redfish in the 1990s took it to the edge.

In Oregon, it was the salmon. Once there were dozens of canneries employing thousands along the Oregon coast. By 2008, commercial fishing for salmon was stopped. Another moratorium. No salmon, no fishing, no canneries, no jobs.

All of these failures of management are failures of government. Greed destroyed these resources. Government mumbled, fumbled and acquiesced to commercial interests.

What do fish have to do with health care? Managing a fishery is no more complicated than managing a deer population. Creating a national health care system, though, is very complicated. Consequently 320 million Americans sit, wait, wonder and worry, sicken and die as our leaders debate, posture and don’t /can’t decide.

Can we really expect the same system that can’t manage a commercial fishery to create and manage a health care system for 320 million people?

No, we can’t — at least no time soon.

This story was originally published July 19, 2017 at 12:44 AM with the headline "Government failures destroyed commercial fishing, will destroy health care system."