As per the information port officials are now considering relocating commercial fishermen from one of their current homes on a strip of land called Terminal Island to a new base. Clearing out the fishermen would allow the port to make way for more berths, cranes and storage facilities that serve the massive container ships that call on the port.
The fishermen are not happy with the progress of the situation as they worry the move could further marginalize them at a moment when many are barely scraping by. Some are concerned that commercial fishing could disappear altogether, severing the last tie with an industry that once defined the port.
According to a commercial fisherman Michael Harris the median yearly earnings for a fisherman are less than $28,000. In the few years since Harris started fishing, the port has already forced him to move his operation three times.
The Port plans to hold public meetings about the plan so environmental groups, businesses and fishermen can have their say. The collapse of the fishing industry over the last four decades forced most fisherman to leave the area, and now only a few dozen commercial vessels moor at Terminal Island’s Fish Harbor.
