Rally Wednesday to seek easing of fishing laws

Thousands of fishermen and women from coastal states around the country are expected to converge on Washington Wednesday with a singular message to federal fisheries regulators: loosen up.

The National Rally for Fishermen's Rights, which follows one with a similar objective two years ago, seeks flexibility and reform in the Manguson-Stevens Act, the 1976 law that governs U.S. fisheries management. Fishing interests say the law and a 1996 amendment to it that mandated a 10-year timeline for rebuilding fish stocks have had a devastating impact.

"The fallout has been the economic strangulation of those communities without a shred of scientific evidence to support the 10-year timeline," said Bonnie Brady, who heads the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, an industry group.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Magnuson reform bills, including one he sponsored in the Senate, were gaining momentum.

"Support keeps building because fishermen are in more and more dire straits," said Schumer, who will speak Wednesday along with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton).

Among hundreds of Long Islanders attending the rally is Anthony Joseph, who operates the commercial fishing boat, Stirs One, out of Point Lookout.

"Regulations are still very hard on us," he said Tuesday. "What they're doing is destroying the fishery and destroying the fishermen." Fish, meanwhile, are thriving, Joseph said.

But regulators and conservationists say teeming fish populations show that Magnuson-Stevens has worked to rebuild many fishing stocks to pre-1980s levels, and that it should not be watered down.

Two primary bills that seek to reform the act through more flexible rebuilding timetables and more reliable science will be pushed at today's rally, said Jim Hutchinson, managing director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance, one of the rally's sponsors. The bills have stalled in Congress. Hutchinson said the "historic" alliance between recreational and commercial fishing interests, which are sometimes at odds, demonstrates the need for reform.

"On the issues of open access under the law and sustainable fisheries, we are united," he said.

The alliance will push hard for H.R.-3061 and the companion Schumer bill, aimed at building flexibility into Magnuson, in ways that extend rebuilding timetables, push for more reliable science to set limits, and to loosen rules that punish anglers by reducing future limits when past seasons exceed limits.