On Tuesday, September 12, 2017 the U.S. Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard held a hearing entitled “Reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act: Oversight of Fisheries Management Successes and Challenges.”
It’s the third and final scheduled legislative hearing in the Senate on the reauthorization of Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA), the federal law which manages most of our coastal fisheries including summer flounder, black sea bass, cod, porgy, and bluefish, as well as red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic.
The Subcommittee heard from two panels of witnesses representing recreational, commercial and charter-for-hire fishermen. Invited witnesses on the first panel testifying in support of reforming MSA to address management challenges that currently restrict access to recreational fishermen coastwide included Phil Faulkner, president of NauticStar Boats; Jim Donofrio, executive director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA); and Chris Horton, fisheries program director for the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF). Speaking out in opposition to MSA reform in first panel testimony was Anthony Friedrich, former executive director for the Coastal Conservation Association (CCA) of Maryland.
The hearing was broadcast online beginning at 2:40 p.m. and was chaired by U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska). Because republicans have the majority in both the House and the Senate, three of the four witnesses invited to testify supported efforts to reform the federal fisheries law. Democrats on the other hand in the opposition minority were able to invite a single witness to participate in each panel testimony; each of the two panels at the hearing, the first dedicated to recreational issues and the second towards the commercial side
Earlier this year a bipartisan group of U.S. senators introduced a bill in Congress called the Modern Fish Act (S. 1520) to address the challenges facing recreational fishermen in the federal fisheries management system. Introduced by Senators Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), John Kennedy (R-La.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), the Modern Fish Act is supported across party lines on Capitol Hill and would help benefit fishing access and conservation by incorporating modern management approaches, science and technology to guide decision-making.
A companion bill, H.R. 2023, was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on April 6, by Congressmen Garret Graves (R-La.), Gene Green (D-Texas), Daniel Webster (R-Fla.) and Rob Wittman (R-Va.).
In his testimony, Donofrio told Senators that RFA has been asking for legislative assistance since MSA was last reauthorized in 2007, which is when amendments made to the law created a systemic management problem on a national scale, most acutely felt in the recreational sector.
"Congress must be made to realize that managing fisheries requires a balance between resource conservation and economic considerations," Donofrio said. "Quite simply, while the system under the current provisions in the MSA has been successful in rebuilding some key fish stocks it has been a dismal failure at translating that success into socioeconomic benefits to fishermen and the recreational fishing industry. It is unnecessarily costing the nation thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in lost economic opportunity."
RFA and other organizations are pushing hard to pass Modern Fish Act bills in the House and Senate. In the House, two bills have been introduced, the Modern Fish Act (HR2023) as well as HR 200 introduced Rep. Don Young from Alaska called the Strengthening Fishing Communities and Increasing Flexibility in Fisheries Management Act. A “markup hearing” is expected in early fall which is where a proposed piece of legislation is debated, amended and possibly rewritten by a full committee before it is passed out of the House.%page_break%
In a release following the hearing, RFA noted that action in the Senate is expected to quicken once a House bill is released. For recreational fishing and boating business owners, from the national manufacturing side on down to the local sales and service side, another year of congressional delay in reforming the law will lead to increased suffering within the recreational fishing community.
“Uncertainty about access, uncertainty about consistent fishing seasons, uncertainty about fisheries management will often discourage a potential angler from justifying an investment in purchasing a boat. Therefore, the market never reaches its potential,” said Phil Faulkner of NauticStar Boats. “Congress can provide balance and consistency to the long-ignored recreational fishing sector by modernizing recreational fisheries management by passing the Modern Fish Act.”
The Modern Fish Act has the community support of a broad coalition of groups including RFA, CSF, the American Sportfishing Association, Center for Sportfishing Policy, Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation, International Game Fish Association, National Marine Manufacturers Association, The Billfish Foundation, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, and the national CCA.
Several former CCA state executive directors, including Friedrich of Maryland and Charles Witek from New York, left the organizational fold once CCA had aligned with other groups in support of MSA reform and are frequently invited to testify in favor of keeping the federal fisheries law’s rigid, binding restrictions in place.
However, as CSF’s Horton pointed out in his testimony, as the nation’s “original conservationists” the recreational anglers of the United States are simply looking for a better, fairer way of managing mixed use coastal fisheries.
“The role that anglers play as conservationists and our dedication to having sustainable fisheries for the future is often misunderstood or even ignored,” Horton said. “It is important that the committee understand and appreciate that managing for better recreational fishing opportunities is not counterproductive to the conservation goals of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, as some may lead you to believe, but rather complimentary to the goal of sustainability and conservation of our marine resources.”
The Magnuson Act was originally signed into law on April 13, 1976 with the primary objective to promote domestic commercial and recreational fishing under sound conservation and management principles. Prior to its passing waters beyond 12 nautical miles were considered international waters and fished by fleets from other countries. The 1976 law extended U.S. jurisdiction to 200 nautical miles and established eight regional fishery management councils with representation from the coastal states and fishery stakeholders to help manage the sustainable harvest of food fish.
According to Donofrio, that noble objective was altered in the 1996 and 2007 reauthorizations and currently, management can only be described as a failure for recreational fishermen looking to sustainably harvest coastal species.
"The needs of fish have been put at an inordinate level of priority while the needs of the fishing community and industry have been made an afterthought. This is not sound resource management and we are asking that the Senate, along with the House, pass MSA reauthorization bills as soon as possible to restore a balance to the management of our nation’s marine resources," he added.
In his opposition testimony however, Friedrich said the bulk of recreational fishermen value time spent with family and friends more than any other aspect of fishing. “The bulk of fishermen want to encounter fish during their trips. Harvesting these fish is far less important. We fish for the experience,” Freidrich explained.
For Mike Wagner of Wagner’s Marina of Keyport, NJ on the Raritan Bay, the angling "experience" disappeared after the Labor Day weekend closure of black sea bass and fluke, after which he hadn’t seen a single car in his parking lot for three consecutive days
“Nobody is going to go out there and spending $150 for fuel and another $100 for bait and tackle and food for an experience, they’re going out there to catch and keep a few fish,” Wagner said, explaining how his marina went from selling a couple of thousand gallons of gas a week in late August to just 150 gallons a week after September 5.
“I don’t see too many people going out there for that experience,” Wagner added. “What can you catch when you close a season? For the experience of targeting sea robins? I don’t think so.”
Read Panel 1 Testimony Below in PDF Form:
Jim Donofrio, Recreational Fishing Alliance
Phil Faulkner, Nautic Star Boats
Chris Horton, Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation
Anthony Friedrich, Saltwater Angler
