Marching on Capitol Hill

America’s National Fisheries Institute (NFI)’s 2014 Future Leaders program finished its last session this week with a trip to Washington, D.C. for a look at fisheries politics from the inside.

Unlike the other three sessions in Georgia, Oregon and Alaska, the Washington trip offered no plant tours or boat trips or cooking demonstrations. Instead, the 43 class members took to Capitol Hill for a lesson on seafood lobbying, once again including hands-on instruction with visits to the offices of senators and congressmen to discuss pressing legislative matters with a direct impact on the seafood industry.

Former German Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck once said sausage and the law are two things no one should ever see being made, and some of the classmates felt a bit out of their element in the world of business suits and policy discussions.

The class was asked to prepare a discussion on the Presidential task force forming to combat illegal fishing and seafood fraud, and present it to various legislators from around the country. As the class took instruction from NFI on what we would be discussing and with whom, together with professional attorneys and lobbyists from the firm Holland & Knight, many of us were clearly nervous.

Despite that, everyone shared a curiosity as to what it would be like to meet with Washington’s power brokers. The experiences varied widely, based on what the congressmen and senators had available. Some class members were ushered into private offices for leisurely discussions. Others had rushed engagements with harried staffers in the hallways of the office buildings where the senators and congressmen worked.

Overall, however, the experience bordered on overwhelming, appearing some ways how one would expect the nation’s capital to look: Thousands of well-dressed people rushing back and forth through the marble-floored buildings, all carrying file folders, valises and briefcases. No one was idle — even in the cafeterias, anyone sitting long enough to eat something was bent over a newspaper, a sheaf of printouts or a laptop, glancing up every so often to see the latest developments on one of the televisions that seemed to be mounted on every wall.

There were signs of the glitz and sheen that goes with the hard work. More than once, our classmates spotted television crews setting up cameras and lights to do a live feed to an anchor in New York, Los Angeles or Atlanta. Several class members reported spotting former Atlanta Hawks basketball legend Dominique Wilkins working the halls, lobbying for some cause — we never found out what.

And several of our group reported catching a glimpse of Secretary of State John Kerry, surrounded by an entourage as he swept through the hallway on his way to a House committee room to testify. This was on Wednesday, the day the House voted to support a plan from President Barack Obama to send the United States military to train and arm Syrian rebels to fight the Islamic fundamentalist group ISIS.

All of this served as a stark reminder that matters of fisheries management, at least in Washington, are often seen as, ahem, very small fish in a very big pond. Still, we were never given the brush-off. In virtually all cases, we were treated with respect and dignity, and we did our best to respond in kind.

Overall, I came away from the day with the same reaction I had to riding a shrimping boat in Georgia, or trying on a survival suit in Portland, Ore., or watching a salmon cannery in action in Ketchikan, Alaska. All of these experiences gave me a new appreciation for what this industry does every day, from the men and women working the fishing boats and processing centers to the politicians working to protect their interests.

It’s a tough job — I’ve always known that, but there’s something about seeing it right before your eyes that drives it home. It’s safe to say I’ll be remembering what I’ve seen and learned as SeafoodSource continues to cover this complex and growing industry.