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Press Release

For Immediate Release
December 11, 2006

For more information, contact:
Tim Zink, 202.654.4625

Major Victory for Marine Fisheries Conservation

Saltwater Angling Conservation Community Sees Top Priorities Addressed in Reauthorization of Magnuson-Stevens Act

WASHINGTON - Over the weekend, the House of Representatives followed Senate action Friday and passed a new version of the primary law that governs the marine fisheries of the United States. The rewrite of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which has not been updated in 10 years, contains strong new provisions for improved science-based marine fisheries management that had been supported by the sportfishing and conservation community.

Pushing together for several of those new provisions this past year was a coalition facilitated by the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership that represents recreational anglers, the sportfishing industry and conservation groups. The TRCP Marine Fisheries Working Group (MCWG) came together in 2005 to establish its joint "SALT Principles," which outlined consensus-based recommendations for addressing marine fishery problems and opportunities.

The Magnuson-Stevens Act reauthorization passed by Congress and expected to be signed into law by President Bush addresses all of the group’s SALT Principles. It is a landmark victory for saltwater anglers and all Americans who care about conservation of our marine resources.

"Saltwater anglers made their voices heard in the months of debate that led to passage of this bill and they have helped ensure our oceans will provide more sustainable fish populations and better fishing for all Americans," said Bob Hayes, who co-chairs the MCWG and represents the Coastal Conservation Association and the American Sportfishing Association.

The SALT Principles stand for Science, Allocation, Licensing and Tackle and the MCWG’s recommendations in these priority areas were addressed in the Magnuson-Stevens Act reauthorization in the following specific ways:

Science

• Includes new Marine Protection Area guidelines that place limits on the creation of no-fishing zones, requiring that they be based on sound science;
• Requires National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) to develop a proposal for integrating the Magnuson Stevens Act (MSA) with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) no later than one year after MSA is enacted;
• Improves participation requirements in Science and Statistical Committees (SSC) of regional fishery management councils;

Allocation

• Includes provision to consider the economic impacts of harvest restrictions or recovery benefits on fishery participants in all sectors;
• Starting in 2010, requires overfishing to stop within two years;
• Maintains existing rebuilding requirements;
• Requires Fishery Management Plans (FMP) to include annual catch limits that cannot exceed recommendations of SSC;
• Allows for permanent fleet buyouts in fisheries with a limited access program; requires report of 20 most overcapitalized fisheries, allows for buyouts in fishery disaster areas;

Licensing

• Establishes federal angler registry, no fee can be charged before 2011; exempts states with licenses that provide adequate data;
• Includes new language mandating a review and overhaul of Marine Recreational Fishing Statistics Survey (MRFSS) taking into account National Resource Council (NRC) report; completed and implemented by 2009.

Tackle

• Establishes Bycatch Reduction Engineering program to improve technology;
• Encourages FMP’s to develop systems to provide incentives for reducing bycatch;
• Requires identification of fisheries with the most urgent bycatch problems;
• Sets bycatch limitations at 10.7% of total allocation (direct & nontarget);
• Includes seabirds as bycatch.

Recreational saltwater fishing plays a crucial role on our coastal economies -- saltwater anglers make a 34-billion-dollar annual impact and support 360,000 full- and part-time jobs. "This updated version of Magnuson-Stevens does a better job of taking into account the importance of managing our marine resources for recreational fishing," points out Matthew Connolly, TRCP President and CEO. "It does so by putting new emphasis on better science and more reliance on it and it mandates creation of more equitable fishery allocations based on more accurate measurements of angler and catch data."

The TRCP’s Marine Conservation Working Group includes marine policy experts from the nation’s leading recreational fishing and marine conservation organizations including the American Sportfishing Association, Berkley Conservation Institute, Coastal Conservation Association, the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies, Environmental Defense and the Izaak Walton League of America.

Special thanks to Senators Ted Stevens, Daniel Inouye, Kay Bailey Hutchison and Bill Nelson and Representatives Richard Pombo, Wayne Gilchrest, Nick Rahall and Jim Saxton for their leadership and commitment to making much-needed updates to our nation’s most important marine management law.

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The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership is a coalition of leading conservation organizations and individual grassroots partners, working together to conserve fish and wildlife and their habitat, increase funding for conservation and management, and expand access to places to hunt and fish.