Lee van der Voo

The fishermen in the room are standing. More prone to long hours on their feet than sitting, they stick out at these meetings, rising after a few hours, hovering behind chairs. This is the North Pacific Fishery Management Council. One of eight regional councils that manage fisheries for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, it’s a mix of bureaucrats, scientists and seafood industry players. They set the rules for fishing the most death-defying and lucrative waters in the United States. The council does its job in sprawling, epic meetings that can last a week. The marathon displays of democracy are held in roving locations, mostly in hotels from Seattle to Anchorage but in farther flung places too, like Nome, Alaska, places from which fishermen in the North Pacific hail. These councils are, in a way, the fishermen’s Congress. Second perhaps to the fish, they are most vital to fishermen’s livelihood and – though most people don’t know it – to the public’s access to affordable seafood. These chief regulators of ocean spoils set the rules