When the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) closed the recreational amberjack fishery on October 24, it was essentially the shot heard round the American docks. NMFS had made a similar emergency closure on the black sea bass fishery in federal waters north of Cape Hatteras, NC just three weeks prior - a fishery which remains closed to recreational fishermen to this day - while the decision had already been made through NMFS and the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council to close all bottom fishing in over 1000 square miles of coastal waters from North Carolina to Florida to protect and rebuild the red snapper populations.

In 2006, the Magnuson Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act (MSA) was passed in the Senate by "unanimous consent" - and signed into law by then President G.W. Bush soon after. The act of unanimous consent on the floor of the Senate officially sets aside rules of procedure so as to expedite proceedings. The quick passage of MSA in the Senate helped to memorialize Sen. Ted Stevens in the naming of our federal fisheries law before his departure from office, and it also facilitated the rapid progression of this broken federal fisheries law without any debate on the floor.

For the past five years, the Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA) has been quite vocal in its opposition to "time-specific" deadlines and the arbitrary, non-scientific provisions contained within MSA. The inflexibility of the fisheries law to respond to an ever-changing marine ecosystem coupled with grossly inadequate management information systems within our federal fisheries service is contributing to a major industry collapse which has been felt throughout our coastal communities. Through strict enforcement of the provisions of MSA, and the rapidly expanding denial of public access to rebuilt and rebuilding fisheries, it has become extremely clear to the majority of anglers and fishing organizations that the federal fisheries law must be fixed.

After spending nearly 10 years in the tackle industry as editor of one of America's leading recreational fishing publications, and now as managing director of the RFA, I'm often asked by friends and associates as to where the "industry" stands on the continued closures, overly restrictive regulations, and the ideological warfare brought upon our coastal communities by well-funded preservationists. The radical environmental movement funded by Pew Charitable Trusts has helped alter fisheries rebuilding parameters and they've effectively redefined the term "overfishing" to allow for economically and socially destructive measures to be enacted upon rebuilding fish stocks. The bad news for anglers is that many of our national fishing organizations have aligned themselves with the ultra-conservation front in believing that MSA is working just fine, and that once fish stocks are rebuilt to "optimum yield" then everything will be alright.

In a recent article at ESPN Outdoors, the Center for Coastal Conservation (CCC) said "we do not believe a legislative 'fix' that permits continued overfishing indefinitely is the way to go," while adding that instead of fixing Magnuson, RFA's efforts "would be better focused on creating free markets for catch shares, leveraged buyouts to right-size overcapitalized fleets, and implementing economic and science-supported fisheries management decisions that put the resource first."

The RFA's message back to CCC, and its "institutional sustainers" and partners at the American Sportfishing Association, the Billfish Foundation, the Coastal Conservation Association, the International Game Fish Association and the National Marine Manufacturers Association is this: our recreational fishing community remains steadfastly and vehemently opposed to catch shares and any other privatization schemes which attempt to eliminate open access fishing to the exclusion of the American fishing public. Furthermore, to "put the resource first" is a tired cliche; recreational fishermen, like all sportsman, have always "put the resource first." The fact is that a fishery resource can only be defined as a resource if you have both the fish and the fishermen - simply put, a resource can never be first when you're a non-user!

The good news is that the majority of fishing organizations and industry leaders in America today feel as strongly as we do about fixing Magnuson.. On February 24, 2010, be sure to join us on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in a rally to protect our coastal communities. As Bob Flocken of the Southern Kingfish Association (SKA) said recently in a newsletter blast to his industry partners, "The situation is much more severe than you may realize and unless we unite and put our money where our mouth is, sport fishing is in big trouble."

Jim Hutchinson, Jr.
RFA Managing Director