A NEW HAMPSHIRE FISHERMAN’S TALE
How The Pease Port Authority Suffocated My Small Business With Red Tape.
In A New Hampshire Fisherman’s Tale, Derek Fisher invites readers into the salty, bone-cracked life of a solitary lobsterman whose only crime was renewing his mooring permit a few weeks too late. With poetic grit and unfiltered honesty, Fisher chronicles his backbreaking daily grind on the Atlantic Ocean, only to be blindsided by the cold fist of bureaucracy: the ice-hearted Pease Port Authority. Ultimately, his 30-years as a commercial fisherman collapses simply because of a clerical misstep that The Authority, blind to his desperate pleas, refuses to ignore.
What begins as a vivid portrait of a man bound to the sea becomes a gripping, Kafkaesque descent into red tape hell. Through gut-wrenching detail and righteous fury, Fisher reveals how a single misstep (a missed deadline) can sink a man’s livelihood, dignity, and identity. This is more than a tale of late paperwork; it’s a working-class David vs. Goliath, where the Goliath doesn’t even bother to look up from its clipboard.
About The Author
Introducing Derek Fisher
Derek Fisher is a lifelong New Hampshire lobsterman with over thirty years of experience fishing Federal and State waters. Raised along the rugged coast, he built his life and livelihood with grit, perseverance, and an unwavering connection to the sea. Known for his independence and no-nonsense work ethic, Fisher embodies the spirit of New England’s working-class maritime tradition.
Reader Reviews
“It is [an] absolutely tragedy what the New Hampshire Port Authority did to this wonderful man I know so well. I was in tears reading this and am so ashamed and angry with any organization that would purposely destroy the life and livelihood of such an amazing and generous person. Shame on them! I don’t know how they can look at themselves in the mirror!”
– Kayla Springer
“Oh. My. God. I thought this was fiction when I read it. Like something straight out of Kafka’s library. But these are REAL letters in this book. Mountains of letters from real New Hampshire lawyers. Over what…? The fact the man filed a form a couple weeks late. A form with a super confusing deadline, mind you, and no indication of the eternal consequences that filing late meant. This book casts a spotlight on every single thing that is wrong with the world when cold and brutal people in power choose to worship red tape instead of helping their fellow man.”
– Timothy B
“The NH Port Authority needs to be torn down brick by brick and the ground beneath it salted. That is the only reasonable outcome one reaches after reading this book. Unbelievable! But meticulously documented and undeniable. I can’t believe this is a true story!!!!”
– Anonymous
“Men and women always have a choice. We have free will. We CHOOSE to do the right thing or the wrong thing. We are not animals or machines. We have consciences and human souls. Hiding behind ‘well, that’s the rules and the rules are the rules are the rules are the rules’ is the most cowardly and despicable action imaginable. What sad and savage creatures these board members of the NH Port Authority are.
Listen, I believe in God. And He commands me to love and pray for my enemies. So I pray when this world has passed away He provides His GRACE to me, and also to the members of the PDA Board that so abysmally failed to grant any tenderness or grace to poor Derek. ”
– Sean Dempsey
“The coldest thing I’ve ever read. Seriously. This was brutal. I weep for him. No reason to guess now why the fishing industry is slowly dying in New Hampshire. Icy and unfeeling bureaucracy is perhaps far worse than hate.”
– Randy Drake
“Some truly evil people live in the shadows. Others reside at the Pease Port Authority, apparently. This true story is absolutely gut-wrenching! I wept after reading it.”
– Rhonda S