President Donald Trump is in an escalating trade fight with Canada over a simple principle: American workers and industries should not be disadvantaged by foreign interests.
asserted
workers → escalate → interests
There is another American resource that deserves the same scrutiny: our fish.
asserted
that → be → scrutiny
Roughly 75% of all fish caught commercially in the Gulf of America benefit just two foreign companies.
asserted
% → catch → companies
About half benefit a single Canadian company.
asserted
half → benefit → company
In the Atlantic, that same Canadian company benefits from roughly a quarter of all fish caught.
asserted
company → benefit → fish
They’re ours.
asserted
They → ’re → ?
And the fish being removed aren’t ending up on American dinner plates.
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fish → remove → plates
Every year, industrial reduction fleets remove billions of forage fish, primarily menhaden, from American waters and grind them into fish meal and fish oil.
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fleets → remove → meal
Much of that product feeds farm-raised fish and other animals in overseas markets.
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Much → feed → markets
Meanwhile, American fishermen, charter captains, restaurants, and coastal communities depend on those same forage fish remaining in the water.
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fish → depend → water
Striped bass, bluefish, tuna, whales, ospreys, and countless other species depend on them.
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bass → depend → them
Take too many forage fish out of the water, and the consequences don’t stop with menhaden.
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consequences → take → menhaden
They travel all the way up the food chain.
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They → travel → chain
That matters economically.
asserted
That → matter → ?
A decade ago, recreational striped bass fishing alone contributed more than $13 billion to the U.S. economy and supported more than 100,000 jobs.
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fishing → contribute → jobs
In the Chesapeake Bay, where roughly 70% of the East Coast’s striped bass are born, scientists and fishermen have raised increasingly urgent concerns about the availability of menhaden and the health of predators that depend on them.
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that → bear → them
This includes ospreys, which are experiencing nest failures at rates not seen since DDT was banned in 1972.
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DDT → include → 1972
Against that backdrop, consider who benefits from the industrial harvest.
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who → consider → harvest
In 2017, New Brunswick-based Cooke Inc. acquired Omega Protein, one of the largest reduction-fishing operations in the United States.
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Inc. → base → States
Cooke said at the time that acquiring Omega would diversify the “supply side” of its seafood business.
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acquiring → say → business
That supply starts in American waters.
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supply → start → waters
The irony is hard to miss.
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irony → miss → ?
The Trump administration is imposing 50% tariffs on certain Canadian goods and moving to block imports of others in response to what it describes as Canada’s discriminatory treatment of American commerce.
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it → impose → commerce
The administration’s stated objective is to defend American producers, jobs, and industries.
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objective → defend → producers
Yet offshore, we continue allowing foreign-owned companies to benefit from the industrial removal of one of America’s most valuable renewable natural resources.
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companies → allow → resources
Trump and Donald Trump Jr. have already drawn attention to Canadian control of the menhaden industry.
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Trump → draw → industry
They were right to ask the question.
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They → ask → question
The bigger question is why America continues managing its most important forage fish as though their greatest economic value comes from industrial-scale harvesting and grinding them into animal feed.
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value → continue → feed
It doesn’t.
asserted
It → do → ?
A menhaden swimming off Long Island, Virginia, or Louisiana is doing work for Americans.
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menhaden → swim → Americans
It feeds the striped bass caught by a recreational angler, the tuna targeted by an offshore charter captain, and the birds and whales that support coastal tourism.
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that → feed → tourism
It helps sustain fisheries, restaurants, tackle shops, marinas, and communities up and down our coasts.
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It → help → coasts
Once that fish is removed from the water and reduced to meal or oil, all of those potential benefits disappear with it.
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all → remove → it
And the supposed trade-off in American jobs is far less compelling than industry defenders suggest.
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defenders → suppose → jobs
One foreign-owned reduction plant in Virginia employs around 250 people.
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plant → own → people
It is an argument for putting American fishermen, businesses, and coastal communities first when we decide how American public resources are managed.
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resources → put → fishermen
For decades, industrial reduction fishing has been treated as though hauling the greatest possible volume of forage fish out of the ocean is itself an economic benefit.
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hauling → treat → ocean
We now know better.
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We → know → ?
On the Atlantic Coast, fishery managers acknowledged last year that the science used to set previous menhaden quotas was flawed and had allowed years of excessive harvest.
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science → acknowledge → harvest
Similar industrial reduction operations have already been pushed out of every Atlantic state’s waters except Virginia.
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operations → push → Virginia
…and 5 more, not listed.
The Aporia
