April 23, 2o23 — U.S. Senators Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Brian Schatz (D-Hawai’i), and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) Thursday introduced S.1227, the Fighting Foreign Illegal Seafood Harvest (FISH) Act.
This legislation is to combat foreign illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing by blacklisting offending vessels from U.S. ports and waters, bolstering the U.S. Coast Guard’s enforcement capabilities, and advancing international and bilateral negotiations to achieve enforceable agreements and treaties.
The FISH Act would build on prior landmark legislation against IUU fishing, including the Maritime SAFE Act, authored by Senators Wicker and Chris Coons (D-Del.) and signed into law in December 2019 as part of the National Defense Authorization Act.