After the rally, Patricia Kurkul, the service’s regional administrator invited five protesters into a conference room on NMFS’ ground floor for an ad hoc exchange of ideas; the meeting ended with Kurkul tacitly agreeing with the general bill of particulars but demurring that her job was to administer, not make, rules and laws, and only Congress can redress the grievances, according to conferee Mike Walsh, who owns four draggers based in Boston.
"The meeting didn’t accomplish anything," Walsh said.
Another conferee, Chris Odlin of Scarborough, Maine, who with his wife owns two Boston-based trawlers, walked out mid-meeting.
Bob Vanasse, executive director of an industry public relations organization, said the Magnuson Stevens Act allows NMFS to make exceptions. A bill, the Flexibility in Rebuilding America’s Fisheries Act of 2009, was filed by Congressman Frank Pallone, D-N.J. and sponsored by a number of New Englanders, exists to clarify congressional intent, he said.