Both Massachusetts' U.S. senators, Democrat John Kerry and Republican Scott Brown, have accepted invitations to speak at the second multi-coastal fishermen's rally, titled "Keep Fishermen Fishing," in Washington, D.C. on March 21.
Kerry has long been engaged in fisheries issues, but was not one of the two dozen federal lawmakers to participate in the 2010 "United We Fish" D.C, rally which galvanized a general resistance along the coasts to Obama administration fisheries policies and launched a movement to modify the Magnuson-Stevens Act.
The Magnuson act is the primary instrument of ocean resource conservation and regulated economic exploitation. The law requires that overfished stocks be rebuilt on a 10-year timeline. It is a requirement that the administration's top fisheries official, NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco, has conceded cannot be defended ecologically, and is seen by critics as the reason for overly restrictive catch limits as regulators limit harvesting to meet rebuilding deadlines.
"Sen. Kerry believes that additional flexibility is needed to help our fishermen," said his spokeswoman, Whitney Smith.
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