Planes, trains and automobiles — and dozens of buses — will be descending on Washington, D.C. 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.
The rising of the fishermen — an unprecedented fusion of recreational and commercial interests — 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.
Yet rigid deadlines in the Magnuson Act as interpreted by federal fishery regulators are cutting catch limits and sending businesses into bankruptcy and collapse.
"Much progress has been made of the last several years in increasing the sustainability of our stocks," James Balsiger, acting head of the National Marine Fisheries Service, wrote last May in NMFS "2008 Status of the Fisheries."