Chairman's proposal for Magnuson-Stevens update to get full airing this week

E&E News
By Jessica Estepa
February 3, 2014

A GOP-backed revamp of the top fisheries law in the United States will be examined by the House Natural Resources Committee this week.

The 30-page discussion draft, introduced by Natural Resources Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) in December, proposes a number of changes to the 1976 Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, including removing a 2006 requirement for managers to rebuild stocks within a 10-year time frame.

The draft also removes some National Environmental Policy Act compliance language, outlines a process for scientific and management actions, and would require some of the fishery management councils to win the approval of permit holders before moving forward with management plans.

Further, the proposal calls for the federal government to better involve states and the recreational fishing community when it comes to the management of the red snapper stock in the Gulf of Mexico, which has been the center of an ongoing dispute in the region.

When he introduced the bill, which would reauthorize Magnuson-Stevens through 2018, Hastings called for public comments to be submitted directly to his office.

"This proposal would give regional fishery managers increased flexibility to deal with the complexity of fishery issues and provide economic stability and certainty to fishermen and fishery-dependent communities," Hastings said at the time. "It also would improve data collection and increase transparency so that management decisions are based on sound science and all who are impacted by this law can have an active role in the process."

But Natural Resources ranking member Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) has expressed doubts about the draft, which he will likely reiterate during tomorrow's full committee hearing.

During the last two reauthorizations in 1996 and 2006, Republicans and Democrats worked together to improve the law. That has not been the case this time, DeFazio said, and he predicted that Hastings' proposal as it stands would be "dead on arrival in the Senate."

"Their legislation is a waste of time," he said.

In a conference call last week, members of the conservation and fishing communities also voiced concerns about the draft, saying the proposed changes would dial back the progress made in the past two decades (E&ENews PM, Jan. 31).

Though there has been a lot of criticism, Hastings' draft has been the only proposal to come out of Congress since the last reauthorization expired at the end of fiscal 2013. Last week, Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) said he plans to float his own reauthorization proposal by early March (Greenwire, Jan. 30).

Schedule: The hearing is Tuesday, Feb. 4, at 10 a.m. in 1324 Longworth.

Witnesses: Samuel Rauch, deputy assistant administrator for regulatory programs at the National Marine Fisheries Service; Rick Marks of Robertson, Monagle & Eastaugh; Vito Giacalone, policy director at the Northeast Seafood Coalition; Mark Fina, regulatory affairs manager at United States Seafoods LLC; David Krebs Jr., president of Ariel Seafoods Inc. and board member of the Gulf Seafood Institute; George Geiger, owner and operator of Chances Are Fishing Charters; James Donofrio, executive director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance; and Ellen Pikitch, professor and executive director of the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science at Stony Brook University's School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences.