Something has gone terribly wrong in our fisheries management and I hope today that we will be able to provide some recommendations that will visibly improve fisheries management.

I think that we have to determine what will best work in terms of restructuring the systems within the agency

Litigation should be the last resort, not the first resort.

Senator Snowe, I met with fishermen last night in Maine. They are numb. They are in shock. There is despair.

I hope we can create a national program with a national approach that will reassure the industries that are directly affected by these kinds of decisions.

We obviously have to reverse this destructive trend toward litigation which is proliferating.

Are there any updates to these recommendations? Is that what this other additional report will provide?

You have said that we should be taking immediate steps to improve the situation by providing a comprehensive assessment.

I certainly wouldn't suggest that it's working in the New England groundfish industry.

Shouldn't you be making the final decision? There is a concern here on our part about who's going to make the final decision.

I thought it was the most notable in your funding request, that, of all the funding requests, it represented the greatest increase of $100 million.

That's exactly right.

We must break this cycle. The courts should not be managing our fisheries--that is the job of NMFS and the Regional Fishery Management Councils.

Our fisheries management system is in a state of utter disrepair and we are caught in an endless cycle of litigation-based management.

We certainly want to be involved in every way possible to ensure that we proceed in a timely fashion.

There should be a sense of urgency about this, because we need to turn this agency around.

I think this hearing is most appropriate and fortuitously comes at a critical juncture, particularly in regards to the New England groundfish crisis.

I hope the government will commit to filing an appeal on behalf of the industry, because this ruling represents devastating consequences for the groundfish industry in New England.

Fisheries management needs an overhaul of major proportions here.

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