When the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) closed the recreational amberjack fishery on October 24, it was essentially the shot heard round the American docks. NMFS had made a similar emergency closure on the black sea bass fishery in federal waters north of Cape Hatteras, NC just three weeks prior – a fishery which remains closed to recreational fishermen to this day – while the decision had already been made through NMFS and the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council to close all bottom fishing in over 1000 square miles of coastal waters from North Carolina to Florida to protect and rebuild the red snapper populations.
In 2006, the Magnuson Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act (MSA) was passed in the Senate by "unanimous consent" – and signed into law by then President G.W. Bush soon after. The act of unanimous consent on the floor of the Senate officially sets aside rules of procedure so as to expedite proceedings. The quick passage of MSA in the Senate helped to memorialize Sen. Ted Stevens in the naming of our federal fisheries law before his departure from office, and it also facilitated the rapid progression of this broken federal fisheries law without any debate on the floor.
For the past five years, the Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA) has been quite vocal in its opposition to "time-specific" deadlines and the arbitrary, non-scientific provisions contained within MSA. The inflexibility of the fisheries law to respond to an ever-changing marine ecosystem coupled with grossly inadequate management information systems within our federal fisheries service is contributing to a major industry collapse which has been felt throughout our coastal communities. Through strict enforcement of the provisions of MSA, and the rapidly expanding denial of public access to rebuilt and rebuilding fisheries, it has become extremely clear to the majority of anglers and fishing organizations that the federal fisheries law must be fixed.