Putting Fish Over Politics

By Lee Crockett from the Huffington Post

For the five-year anniversary of the reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the law that addresses fisheries in the U.S., I collaborated on this op-ed with former National Marine Fisheries Service director Bill Hogarth. He currently directs the Florida Institute of Oceanography.

Remarkable things can happen when key stakeholders and leaders in Washington find common ground for a common good. An excellent case in point is the congressional effort to reauthorize the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, a landmark conservation measure signed into law by President George W. Bush five years ago this January.

In the mid-2000s, we had arrived at a point where our marine fisheries management system just wasn’t working in many parts of the country. The clock was ticking to reform our nation’s primary law for governing U.S. ocean fish. Disputes among main constituencies were many, but one thing was clear to virtually all — business as usual was no longer an option.

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