Top photo: Linda Behnken

Straight from the waters off Sitka, Alaska, Linda Behnken describes the hardships that the coronavirus pandemic has brought to America’s fishermen. 2020 has been a hard year for her and her fishermen peers, just as it has for all fishermen, coastal communities and many others across country.

Fishermen provide our country with sustainable, high quality, domestic seafood. Unfortunately dockside prices have dropped across the country during the pandemic. Meanwhile, fishermen’s costs have stayed the same, squeezing these vital American small businesses that feed a hungry nation. Behnken, along with the MFCN, urges Congress to step up and provide federal support to the people who put seafood on America’s plates and create programs that build resiliency into the system to navigate through this pandemic and toward a brighter future. Congress must act now.