John Kerry: “I think it is fair to say--and I know the Senator from Alaska will join me in this--a lot of countries around the world…”

“I think it is fair to say--and I know the Senator from Alaska will join me in this--a lot of countries around the world were waiting to see how the United States was going to respond to its crisis of dealing with its fishing stocks and the protection of our available fishing grounds from the waters off Alaska to the waters south all the way to San Diego, the tuna fleet, all through the gulf coast, the Gulf of Mexico, around to Florida all the way up to Charleston, SC, North Carolina, New York, New Jersey, to Maine. We have had different interests that have been tugging within this bill. We have commercial fishermen tugging against recreational fishermen. This is a $50 billion a year industry to the United States on the commercial side and it is a $7 billion industry with respect to the recreational side. There are enormous pressures by that monetary interest to continue to deplete. But this is a finite resource, and we have to manage it.”