March 21, 2012 – Fishermen from around the country are in Washington, D.C., this morning for a second rally in two years. February 2010's rally aimed to bring attention to the struggles of the industry under the catch limits imposed by NOAA. Today, the message is to support bills pending in Congress that would inject flexibility and practicality into the process.
That first rally prompted Sen. John Kerry to schedule a Senate hearing in Boston at Faneuil Hall, which introduced the region to NOAA boss Jane Lubchenco. It helped the disparate fisheries, with all their idiosyncrasies, discover their commonalities and leverage. It landed the issue on the radar screen of the national media. And it prompted legislators to seek changes to the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.
Bills proposing change to the act will take center stage at today's rally.
One of those bills, S. 632, is known as the Flexibility in Rebuilding American Fisheries Act of 2011. One of its main features is to amend the language of the 1996 act to say that, instead of rebuilding fisheries as quickly as "possible," to do it as quickly as "practicable." It shares language with H.R. 3061, the Flexibility and Access in Rebuilding American Fisheries Act of 2011, which also includes language to allow the Commerce secretary to amend catch limits based on real-time fishing data.
Read the complete editorial from The Standard-Times.