Congressman Barney Frank told a rally of several hundred fishermen in Washington today, including a number from New Bedford, that their advocacy was an important step in rewriting unfair provisions of the Magnuson Act which affect the fishing industry.
"I appreciate the effort here, I am encouraged by it. We're going to fix that law," Frank told a cheering crowd.
"I have a sharp disagreement with regulators who think they have to tell fishermen how important it is to have fish ten years from now. Fishermen have more of an interest and more of an understanding of keeping the fish around than the people who are regulating them. It's absolutely backwards."
Frank told the fishermen that regulators have been too hard on the fishing industry. "I wish, because I am on the Financial Services Committee, that the federal government had treated some of the people in the financial industry as harshly as the NMFS (the National Marine Fisheries Service) has treated fisherman. They got it backwards. They have it absolutely backwards."
Read the complete story at WLNE 6.