Jim Hutchinson, managing director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA) said that God opened up the sky and it was a beautiful day in D.C. He told that people from Alaska, from California, from the Gulf Coast have gathered on the steps of Capitol Hill. There were recreational and commercial fishermen, charter captains, marina owners, fish packers. And their elected representatives in the U.S. House and Senate.
It is estimated that more than 3,000 strong, they gathered to protest what they view as unnecessary and oppressive management of saltwater fisheries by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and its affiliates. Signed into law in 2007, the Magnuson-Stevens Conservation Management Act was supposed to right the wrongs of decades of poor management, while helping to restore and sustain fisheries prized by both commercial and recreational anglers.
Jim Donofrio, RFA’s executive director, opined that black sea bass was at 200 percent over its projected biomass, and yet NOAA (National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration) closed it down because we may overfish it. With RFA leading the way, commercial fishermen, recreational anglers, and others associated with both industries united to push back via the rally and introduction into Congress of a “flexibility” bill that would amend Magnuson-Stevens so that stocks could be protected without the catastrophic collapse of businesses and communities tied to commercial and recreational fishing. According to RFA, the bill also is about “opposition to ‘time-specific’ deadlines and arbitrary, non-scientific provisions contained within our federal fisheries law. It is explained that during the rally, fear of that collapse “showed on the faces of grown men in tears, who are afraid that they won’t be able to do a job that they love and support their families.
