SEAFOOD.COM NEWS by John Sackton - Jan 11, 2010 - The Preserve Fishing Coalition, a coalition of recreational and commercial fishng groups on the East Coast, is asking for support in both Congress, and in a proposed march on Washington, to protest the implementation of Magnuson and demand changes in rebuilding timetables. Congressional sponsors Sen. Schumer (D-NY), and Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) are the principal Senate and House sponsors of legislation to change Magnuson, and have more than twenty co-sponsors. The Preserve fishing coalition is made up of both Northeastern industry groups, such as the ad hoc coalition that organized a fisheries protest in Gloucester last fall, and recreational groups including party boat operators and tackle manufacturere in New York and New Jersey. The groups are asking all in the seafood industry who agree with them to sign on to a letter posted at this website. The letter says 'Over the last two decades, multi-billion dollar philanthropic foundations with strong corporate connections have influenced the inclusion of arbitrarily restrictive language in our nations primary fisheries law, the Magnuson Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. The implementation of this language has caused the loss of thousands of domestic fishing businesses and tens of thousands of jobs. The resulting arbitrary rebuilding timelines and targets have inflicted untold and unnecessary economic loss and hardship on the fishing families that are still holding on. Working through ENGOs and employing their own cadre of advocacy-scientists, these foundations have also underwritten a handful of recreational and commercial fishing organizations to further their apparent goals of marginalizing or destroying the surviving domestic commercial and recreational fishing fleet, commercial and recreational boat manufacturers, tackle retailers and all other sectors of the fishing-dependent marine industry in the United States. Additionally they have used their seemingly endless financial resources to gain control of print and broadcast media to the extent that the fishermen are now believed to be incapable of objectively participating in the fisheries management process unless they have the approval of those foundations or their paid minions. This is a 180 degree departure from the intent of the Magnuson Act as originally passed, which specifically included fishermen in the management process to balance the lack of precision in fisheries science with their on-the-water experience. That imprecision is still and will always be with us and independent fishermens participation in the management process should be as well. In response, recreational and commercial fishermen will gather together on the steps of the Capitol on February 24, 2010 from noon until 3 p. m. in an organized demonstration against the unintended negative impacts of the Magnuson Stevens Conservation and Management Act (MSA), the federal fisheries law which was revised in January of 2007. Rally organizers are hoping to see a large show of force in defense of coastal communities. 'The closures keep coming and its good to see the collective fishing communities and industries, both recreational and commercial, calling for scientific based Magnuson reform', said Jim Donofrio, Executive Director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA). 'We are all in this together. ' Donofrio cited recent closures of amberjack, black sea bass and red snapper fisheries as examples of what he calls a broken federal fisheries law. Other flashpoints have been the closure of the summer flounder fishery in New Jersey and New York, the reduction in the scallop fishery in New England, and the drastic reductions in groundfish stock quotas for species such as yellowtail flounder, pollock and cod that will impact New England's new sector management system.