September 18, 2014 — A number of regional fishing associations are joining forces to strengthen the Magnuson-Stevens Act.
The Sitka-based Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association announced last week (9-9-14) that it’s reached an agreement with the Alaska Marine Conservation Council and several east-coast industry groups to form the Fishing Community Coalition.
The new organization wants to ensure that Congress makes protecting fish stocks a priority as it prepares to reauthorize the nation’s most important law governing the harvest of seafood in federal waters.
Draft language containing proposed changes to Magnuson-Stevens has been working its way through the US House of Representatives, but the political lines became clearer when Florida’s Republican Sen. Marco Rubio introduced his version of the bill on September 16.
Read the full text of Sen. Rubio’s Florida Fisheries Improvement Act.
The top priority for Rubio is giving the regional management councils more flexibility in setting timelines for rebuilding depleted fish stocks.
This is exactly what Linda Behnken, the director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, was hoping not to hear.
“There’s quite a pushback right now against the rebuilding timelines and the catch limits. You start rebuilding stocks, it means you have to catch less fish, generally, and that’s a painful process for fishermen.”