Every generation must learn that lesson. When the United States purchased Alaska in 1867, there was great reluctance in Washington to spend any money on a territory that most people considered to be unprofitable wasteland. For fifteen years, there were no lighthouses and no buoys. The whaling season of 1883 took a particularly fearsome toll on the whaling fleet, finally teaching that generation that we are small before the sea and convincing them of the need for aids to navigation in Alaska. We are learning that lesson still.
Tomorrow ends a very difficult month for the U.S. commercial fishing fleet.
Ten boats sunk. Eleven people missing or known dead. The Coast Guard is so concerned that we launched the Fishing Vessel Casualty Task Force to discover why these disasters occur with such frequency. I do not want to pre-suppose the findings of this task force because I know well that the economic and safety issues faced by a fleet of more than 100,000 fishing vessels are varied and complex. Nevertheless, I strongly suspect that lurking among the technical factors is an insufficient appreciation of how small we are before the sea.