April 1, 2025 — U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-Rhode Island) has reintroduced legislation to add the state of Rhode Island to the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (MAFMC), one of the eight regional fishery councils that manage commercial fishing in the United States.
The Mid-Atlantic Council holds primary management authority over federal waters off the coasts of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia.
Rhode Island currently sits on the New England Fishery Management Council, which governs fishing to the north of the Mid-Atlantic Council area along the United States’ Atlantic coast. However, Reed claims that Rhode Island would be better served by a seat on the MAFMC, since the commercial fisheries Rhode Island fishers are most actively participating in are managed by the MAFMC, not the NEFMC.
“For years now, Rhode Island’s landings of stocks managed by the MAFMC have outpaced the landings of those managed by the New England Fishery Management Council, where Rhode Island is represented,” Reed said on the floor of the U.S. Senate on March 26. “Moreover, Rhode Island has a larger stake in the mid-Atlantic fishery than many of the States that currently hold seats on the MAFMC.”