Fishermen and charter boat captains from Maine to Louisiana rallied outside the Capitol Wednesday to demand changes to federal fishing limits they say are putting them out of business.
Participants in the “United We Fish” rally want to loosen federal catch restrictions imposed to protect vulnerable fish stocks.
Bryan Lowery, who fishes for scallops near Ocean City, Md., said the rules are particularly frustrating now because scallops are so plentiful. Yet instead of his usual 100 fishing trips, Lowery said he expects to take just nine this year.
“They've just put us out of business,” Lowery said, referring to the National Marine Fisheries Service, which enforces the fisheries law.
Similar complaints came from cod fishermen from off the Massachusetts coast and those who fish for red snapper in the Carolinas. In Gloucester, Mass., “you can walk on the cod,” said Mayor Carolyn Kirk, one of the speakers at the lunchtime rally, which drew at least 2,000 people.
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