Senate Passes the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 2006

Senate Passes the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 2006

June 19, 2006 - WASHINGTON, DC - Today, the Senate passed the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation Act of 2006 by a vote of unanimous consent. The bill reauthorizes the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the law that manages and regulates fisheries in the United States' Exclusive Economic Zone, from Fiscal Year 2006 through Fiscal Year 2012.

Upon its passage, Senator Ted Stevens said, "The Magnuson-Stevens Act is the most successful federal-state management program ever devised. The reauthorization passed today builds upon 30 years of success. I am particularly pleased we were able to incorporate many of the practices employed by our North Pacific Regional Council, which have served our Alaska fisheries well."

The fisheries managed by the North Pacific Regional Council have been singled out by the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy and the Pew Oceans Commission as an example of proper conservation and management. Today's bill implements some of the council's "best practices" nationwide. It strengthens the role of science in fishery management plans and decisions by enabling greater collaboration between the councils and their Scientific and Statistical Committees, improving data collection and management, and requiring fishery management plans to set annual catch limits at or below the optimum yield.

The bill not only protects domestic fisheries, it also strengthens management in international waters, particularly on the high seas. To help prevent illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing from threatening the good management taking place in U.S. waters, the bill strengthens U.S. leadership in international conservation and management. It directs the Secretary of Commerce to establish an international compliance and monitoring program and allows the use of measures authorized under the High Seas Driftnet Act to force compliance in cases where regional or international fishery organizations are unable to stop IUU fishing.

In 1969, as a freshman senator, Stevens monitored the Law of the Sea negotiations at the request of Senator Warren Magnuson (D-Washington). Stevens and Magnuson then developed a bipartisan bill that established the United States' exclusive right to harvest fishery resources in waters 3 to 200 miles off of the U.S. coast. The Magnuson-Stevens Act set up a national conservation and management framework that addressed the complexity of differing fish stocks and the unique approaches required in each region by creating eight Regional Fishery Management Councils.

Since its enactment in 1976, the Act has been reauthorized 6 times. It was most recently amended in 1996 through the Sustainable Fisheries Act (SFA). The reauthorization passed by the Senate today is Stevens first as Chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, which has jurisdiction over this legislation. The bill is the culmination of a process that spanned a year and a half and included consultation with members of Congress and concerned groups, constituencies, and organizations.

http://stevens.senate.gov/pr_detailed.cfm?prid=398