Latest Debates in Congress

Fisheries Management
Confronting the Depletion of Ocean Resources
Is H.R. 5018 a Sound Approach to Regional Fisheries Management?

For centuries, it was assumed that the seas held a limitless bounty. Yet today, the populations of most marine fish species are at an all-time low. An international study published recently in the journal Science warned that nearly one-third of open sea fisheries are in a state of collapse, and that ocean life and seafood could be depleted by as early as 2048. Though bleak, the study said that such techniques as marine reserves and no-fishing zones could help reverse these alarming trends.

The United States has the most territorial ocean waters of any nation, and for many years the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act served as a check on the activities of ocean fisheries. Originally enacted in 1976, the law created for the first time a national program for the conservation and management of fishery resources within the Federal waters of the United States (a 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone).

During the last (109th) Congress, lawmakers took up proposals to reauthorize the Magnuson-Stevens Act. The most controversial bill, H.R. 5018, introduced by House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo (CA-R), set annual catch limits, but did not force fisheries that went beyond those limits to reduce the following year’s catch by the exceeded amount. Instead, it gave regional councils discretion in determining how to curtail overfishing.

Supporters of H.R. 5018 argued that it represented a common-sense approach to fishery management, with enough flexibility to protect local economies.

Opponents of H.R. 5018 maintained that exceptions in the bill would delay the recovery of depleted fisheries.

In the end, negotiators agreed on compromise legislation approved by both the House and Senate right before the adjournment of the lame-duck Congress in December 2006. The new language incorporates some of the recommendations of two major commssions of the last few years — the Pew Oceans Commission and the U.S. National Ocean Commsssion — both of which concluded that the oceans are in crisis.

While both sides call the new law a major step forward that recognizes the urgency of the current threat, they also acknowledged that the next Congress will have to take further action — without delay — to address the problems facing the world’s oceans.

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