June 27, 2018 — On Monday, the U.S. House passed without opposition freshman U.S. Rep. Darren Soto’s, D-Fla., proposal limiting the sale of billfish caught by American vessels and giving the U.S. Commerce secretary more authority to manage Atlantic highly migratory species.
Soto introduced his proposal back in December and it was backed by the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee last week.
“Under current law, billfish caught by U.S. vessels that land in Hawaii or Pacific Insular Areas (American Samoa, Baker Island, Guam, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, Midway Island, the Northern Mariana Islands, Palmyra Atoll, and Wake Island) may be sold and exported to non-U.S. markets or transported to other U.S. markets,” Soto’s office noted about the legislation. “This bill requires billfish caught by U.S. vessels that land in Hawaii or Pacific Insular Areas to be retained for sale in those areas. This strikes a balance between preserving traditional cultural fishing in these areas and the overall intent to prevent large scale commercial fishing of these billfish.
“Moreover, the bill clarifies that there is no language in the Shark Conservation Act (SCA) of 2010 that alters existing authority of the Secretary of Commerce to manage Atlantic highly migratory species under the Magnuson-Stevens Act,” Soto’s office added. “It also cleans up language in the SCA by removing an expired offset. The main goal of this fix is to ensure protection against shark finning.”