Concurrent with the Feb. 24 United We Fish rally, a coalition of fishing industry leaders called on the Obama administration to address "a crisis within the federal fisheries management system."
They elected not to join commercial and recreational anglers on the Capitol steps to protest the closure of fisheries prompted by the reauthorized Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. But they voiced their support for management relief in a letter to Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
"There is a great deal of frustration among recreational anglers, much of it attributable to an agency that doesn't have the data, the science, or the will to properly manage us," said Pay Murray of the Coastal Conservation Association (CCA), a member of the coalition. "Recreational anglers have always been willing to do what is right to maintain healthy marine resources, but it is hard to have faith in many of the management measures we are seeing out of NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) right now. There is a better path than the one they are on now."