PROVIDENCE, R.I. — U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse's guest of honor at the State of the Union Tuesday will be a Narragansett fisherman with four decades fishing out of Point Judith.
Whitehouse on Saturday announced his choice to join him Tuesday night in Washington as Chris Brown, president of the Rhode Island Commercial Fishermen's Association. In a news release, Whitehouse said his pick comes weeks after President Donald Trump moved to expand oil and gas drilling off the Atlantic Coast — a move that the senator says will imperil the Rhode Island commercial fishing industry and its coastal economy.
Brown has been a commercial fisherman since 1978. He serves as president of the Commercial Fisheries Center of Rhode Island and the Seafood Harvesters of America, a national commercial fishermen's group that promotes sustainable fishing and responsible stewardship of the ocean's resources.
Brown, too, expressed gratitude at the selection.
Whitehouse is co-chair and co-founder of the Senate Oceans Caucus, a bipartisan group of 36 senators that works to address emerging ocean and coastal issues, including illegal fishing and marine debris. He co-authored the Save Our Seas Act, bipartisan legislation passed unanimously by the Senate last summer, to stem the flow of plastic ocean debris that can harm fish and marine wildlife, according to the news release.