Pro-Fishing Industry Council Members Often Stay In Power For Years The same industry backers are reappointed to Wespac for term after term while people who lean toward conservation are soon replaced.
For the past several years, Matt Ramsey, the Hawaii program director of Conservation International and a lifelong recreational fisherman, has tried to get a seat on the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council.
The 16-member federal body, which has jurisdiction over 1.5 million square miles of ocean, has long faced criticism for favoring commercial fishing interests. Current and former chairs have championed the industry for decades despite calls from the environmental community to strike a better balance.
But not much has changed, in part because it’s proven tough to secure a seat for those coming up from the conservation side.
