Congressman Barney Frank has been by our side for more than 10 years, bringing focus to the fact that the 10-year rebuilding schedule demanded by National Marine Fisheries Service was one arbitrarily chosen, and that it will unnecessarily cause suffering to our working fishermen.
Fishermen from North Carolina, South Carolina, Massachusetts, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and even Alaska came together to protest the government's lack of flexibility in rebuilding our fisheries, as well as the obvious signs that the bureaucratic agency, National Marine Fisheries Service, has shown itself to be both lacking credible data and intentionally causing the collapse of our fishing industry across our country, with no regard for the families, communities, and cultures that will be destroyed along the way.
However, times they are a changing. On the stage that day, legislators of all the states attending were there to assure the fishermen and their families that they were no longer alone. They assured us that the Capitol building in front of us was one that had a place, and compassion, for fishermen and their plight.
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