Dr. Brian Rothschild of the UMass Marine Science and Technology Center, who chairs the council, is appealing to fishing interests up and down the coastline from Maine to North Carolina to urge their senators and congressmen to attend.

The meeting, during which the council will spell out specific concerns and problems with fisheries management, will be similar to the one held last month in Portsmouth, N.H. That venue was a role reversal, too: The New England Fishery Management Council was meeting at the other end of the hotel hallway, and walked over to attend New Bedford's presentation.

The meetings, which are essentially seminars that involve a number of speakers, some of them fisheries experts, are a relatively inexpensive alternative to hiring paid lobbyists in the manner of large, well-financed environmental organizations such as the Environmental Defense fund and the Pew Foundation.

Dozens of people attended sessions in New Bedford, and although the size of the loosely organized council is somewhat uncertain, numbering around a dozen, people from outside New Bedford have been attending the meetings with little distinction made between who is a member and who is not.

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