February 13, 2014 — Environmental and commercial fishing interests have concerns about a new draft proposal to reauthorize the Magnuson Stevens Act which governs the commercial and recreational harvest of fisheries in federal waters.
The Magnuson Stevens Act was first passed in 1976 primarily to address the problem of foreign illegal fishing and to promote the industry. Reauthorizations of the law in 1996 and in 2006 shifted focus toward adopting regulations to prevent further overfishing of important marine species and ensure the future viability of the industry.
Commercial fishing interests have taken a financial hit from those changes, but also helped populations of fish like red snapper rebound. Last week, members of the House Natural Resources Committee heard testimony on a draft reauthorization of the law proposed by committee chair Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash. Hastings has said his proposal is intended to add transparency and flexibility to the law.
“We’ve got some serious concerns with the legislation that was introduced recently,” said U.S. Oceans Director for the Pew Charitable Trusts, Holly Binns. “It would allow overfishing to continue on the most deleted fish populations and that, in and of itself, is not good for the fish and it’s not good for fishermen…And it would complicate management of snappers and grouper in the Gulf of Mexico and make these rules really confusing.”
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