Image via Wikipedia

On Thursday CNS News reported that commercial fisherman are fighting back against excessive regulations put in place by the Obama administration.

The article reports:

A group calling itself the Seafood Coalition is calling on Congress to do what it can to scuttle President Obama’s National Ocean Policy National Ocean Policy, which the president unilaterally imposed by executive order in 2010.

In a letter to the House Natural Resources Committee, the Seafood Coalition said that the president’s plan adds a needless level of top-down bureaucracy and regulation on fisheries.

Please notice that the new regulations were put in place by executive order rather than the normal legislative process.

The article further reports:

Stolpe (Nils Stolpe, spokesman for the Seafood Coalition) said the regional boards will throw up in the air the bottom-up scheme that has been in effect since 1976, when Congress passed the Magnuson Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act to address overfishing.

“The management program we have in place now is working – it’s working really well – and we don’t need another layer of bureaucracy stuck on top of that,” he said.

Stolpe said the commercial seafood industry currently works hand-in-hand with federal and state fisheries managers and scientists to create “an effective management process” which already promotes “sustainable” fishing.

“Eighty percent of our domestic fisheries – fisheries exclusively in the U.S. economic zone – are no longer being overfished,” Stolpe said.

The White House, meanwhile, specifically denies the accusation made by the fishing industry.

What has happened as the result of this executive order? Small commercial fishermen have been forced out of business and the cost of seafood for the consumer has risen. If there is a valid need for a new law, the law needs to be introduced in Congress and voted on by Congress. The executive order regarding fishing has created more problems than it solved.