From the Eastern seaboard to Pacific Northwest, former Sen. Ted Stevens' impact on fisheries has been and will continue to be immense.
"Ted Stevens is the reason so many fishermen's children can afford to wear diapers and shoes and their kids can go to college," Southeast Alaska Seiners Association executive director Robert Thorstenson Jr. said.
Thorstenson's father, Bob Sr., a founding member of Petersburg Fisheries Inc. (now Icicle Seafoods based in Seattle), would often entertain the senator, and young Robert would bounce on his knee.
"My dad and Ted worked together long before the Magnuson-Stevens Act, and were close family friends. … The entire Alaska seafood industry would be a completely different place (without Stevens) – he impacted our ports, our schools, our airports … every single town. There is nothing that was not touched in some way by Ted Stevens."
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Photo courtesy of Associated Press
