To: The President
We, the undersigned commercial fishing organizations, including members of the National Coalition for Fishing Communities, and our supporters, who collectively produce the majority of the edible finfish and shellfish harvested from U.S. waters, join with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, the Regional Fisheries Management Councils’ Council Coordination Committee, and over two dozen individual fish and seafood industry trade organizations in urging you to not use the federal Antiquities Act to create additional marine national monument and circumvent the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.
The federal fisheries management process is among the most effective systems for managing living marine resources in the world. Through it, government scientists, academic researchers, representatives of the commercial, recreational, and party/charter fishing sectors, and environmentalists routinely arrive at fishery management decisions that, while seldom being fully satisfactory to all of the participants, balance the often competing interests of all of the participants in an open and well-considered manner.
The misuse of the Antiquities Act to create a marine monument is a repudiation of the past and ongoing efforts of almost everyone involved to continue to make Magnuson-Stevens management even more effective.
Please let the bipartisan Magnuson-Stevens Act work as intended.
Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers
American Scallop Association
American Albacore Fisheries Association
At-Sea Processors Association
Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Association
Atlantic Offshore Lobstermen’s Association
California Fisheries and Seafood Institute
California Lobster & Trap Fishermen’s Association
California Sea Urchin Commission
California Wetfish Producers Association
Coalition of Coastal Fisheries
Coos Bay Trawlers
Directed Sustainable Fisheries
Fisheries Survival Fund
Fishermen’s Dock Co-Op
Garden State Seafood Association
Golden King Crab Coalition
Groundfish Forum
Hawaii Longline Association
Long Island Commercial Fishing Association
Midwater Trawlers Cooperative
National Fisheries Institute
North Carolina Fisheries Association
Oregon Trawl Commission
Organized Fishermen of Florida
Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations
Pacific Seafood Processors Association
Pacific Whiting Conservation Cooperative
Southeastern Fisheries Association
Sustainable Fisheries Coalition
United Catcher Boats
Ventura County Commercial Fishermen’s Association
Washington Trollers Association
West Coast Seafood Processors Association
Western Fishboat Owners Association