All roads lead to Washington D.C. as fishermen from all over the country will be descending to the capital for Washington fishing rally beginning next Sunday as a national movement of fishermen gathers in an effort to convince Congress to put more economic opportunity into the Magnuson-Stevens fisheries recovery act.
Experts believe that the rising of the fishermen comes more than 30 years into the nation’s commitment to restore the ocean ecosystem. And it’s coming at a moment when fishermen and government science agree a remarkable environmental success story is in the making. The rally is against the rigid deadlines in the Magnuson Act as interpreted by federal fishery regulators are cutting catch limits and sending businesses into bankruptcy and collapse.
James Balsiger, acting head of the National Marine Fisheries Service, said that much progress has been made of the last several years in increasing the sustainability of the stocks. He told that majority of US domestic assessed fish stocks are either not subject to overfishing (84 percent) or not overfished (77 percent). But with Jane Lubchenco, the Obama administration’s head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, committed to imposing a new economic system on the oceans, converting the commonly owned resources into a cap-and-trade system for trade and investment, massive job losses are expected.
It is reported that around 3,000 to 5,000 people from fishermen and families from up and down the Atlantic and Gulf coasts and a smattering from the West Coast and Alaska — have planned to rally at noon on Wednesday, Feb. 24 on the steps of the U.S. Capitol steps. Long alleged by the industry, the full range of NOAA police misbehavior was investigated and corroborated last month by the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Commerce, who found excessive and overbearing enforcement that squeezed fishermen into submission and made them feel like criminals.
NMFS’ figures estimate that fishing added $185 billion to the American economy in 2006. Opposition to changing Magnuson, meanwhile, has been spearheaded by
the Pew Environment Group, which has called together dozens of satellite groups that with or without Pew funding to lend their influence to insisting Magnuson not be changed.
