"This group represents a large spectrum of the seafood community, including fishermen, processors, big boats, small boats, and a variety of fishing gear types," said Rod Moore, Executive Director of the West Coast Seafood Processors Association.  "We all agree that it is time to bring science back to fisheries conservation and management."

The coalition is asking Congress to change the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act - the nation's primary fisheries law, which is due for renewal - by applying more scientific standards to fisheries conservation and management.

"Our fisheries managers have been strapped by the lack of resources available to them and the impossible standards they must meet under current law," said Moore.  "We want our fisheries conserved and properly managed on the basis of reality, not on fuzzy ideas conceived by lobbyists in Washington, D.C."

Among the group's proposals are the following:

-Define "best scientific information available", the standard used to develop conservation measures.  No definition now exists,    which leaves decisions open to attack.

-Establish a requirement for scientific peer review of fisheries stock assessments.  A peer review process has worked well in some areas but others have not yet adopted it.

-Focus on specific fisheries habitat problems, rather than trying to spread minimal scientific resources over the entire ocean.

-Concentrate on rebuilding stocks that are reduced by human activities instead of dissipating effort on fish stocks that are at lower levels due to natural environmental fluctuations.
 
-Incorporating as policy current scientific findings on the value of seafood to human health and nutrition.
 
-Requiring establishment of clear policies regarding use of observers in order to ensure collection of good scientific data.

-Requiring regulations to take into account the cumulative effect of impacts on coastal communities.

-Account for annual fluctuations in fish stock size.
 
-Require federal agencies to consider the effects of their actions on safe harvesting and processing of seafood.

"We see these amendments as good tools which can be used to sustain our fisheries and coastal communities," said Moore.  "We are asking the Congress to do the right thing and enact these amendments into law."