PALLONE INTRODUCES COMPREHENSIVE FISHERIES REFORM BILL
RFA Says Industry Agrees Magnuson Is “Flawed and Must Be Modified”
(9/29/2011) In response to the growing chorus of support for fisheries reform, Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) today announced the reintroduction of legislation designed to amend the Magnuson Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. The Flexibility and Access in Rebuilding American Fisheries Act of 2011 (HR 3061) would extend the authorized time period for rebuilding certain overfished fisheries, while also calling on the scientific and statistical committees to provide regional fishery management councils with annual reports on the process used in their recommendations.
Pallone’s HR 3061 would also put more emphasis on NOAA Fisheries’ personal responsibility to provide detailed fishery impact statements for the Secretary of Commerce reporting on the economic impact each fishery management plan is having on coastal business.
“This bill will create not only the flexibility needed to responsibly manage fisheries but will also improve transparency in the fisheries management process, provide a mechanism to mitigate the real economic impacts fishermen and coastal businesses face and improve access to healthy fish stocks in a way that balances sustainability with uncertainty in science and management that is used to reduce access,” Rep. Pallone said today.
“This is precisely the type of fisheries reform that coastal advocates have wanted since Magnuson was reauthorized in 2006,” said Jim Donofrio, executive director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA). “We’ve said that rigid definitions, inflexible deadlines and arbitrary measures included in the reauthorization would lead to a train wreck in several U.S. fishing regions, but not too many folks in DC had that vision. Mr. Pallone understood this all along.”
In 2007, Rep. Pallone sponsored the Flexibility in Rebuilding American Fisheries Act, a bill with bipartisan coastal support in Congress that i