July 19, 2018 — There’s a little something for everyone to hate in the House’s proposed renewal of the Magnuson-Stevens Act.
Commercial fishermen feel it gives too much to recreational fishermen and environmentalists. Recreational fishermen say it goes too easy on their commercial counterparts, and the environmental lobby says the measure, which passed the House last week along largely partisan lines, will undo years of progress in restoring fish stocks.
We are left with what we have had for decades — a pitched battle among competing interests, with no end in sight. Congress must do better to help guarantee that the science behind management decisions is sound and easily understandable.
The act has been controversial since it went into effect in 1976, as the crisis in the nation’s fishing industry reached its peak. The measure established a 200-mile fishing limit off the American coastline, banned foreign factory trawlers and set up regional councils to oversee the rebuilding of depleted fish stocks. The law was modified and reauthorized in 1986, 1996 and 2006.
The most recent attempt to update the law would give the regional councils more flexibility in managing fish stocks, and not tie conservation plans so closely to stock surveys and other research carried out by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.