104th Congress > House > Vote 704
Clerk session vote number: 720
Description: Fisheries Conservation and Management Amendments
Bill summary: TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Title I: Reauthorization of and Amendments to the Magnuson
Fishery Conservation and Management Act
Title II: Insular Areas
Fishery Conservation and Management Amendments of 1995 -
Title I: Reauthorization of and Amendments to the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act
- Amends the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson Act) to make it U.S. policy to encourage development of practical measures that minimize bycatch.
(Sec. 5) Authorizes the
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Secretary of Commerce to issue transshipment permits to foreign vessels engaged in fishing consisting solely of transporting fish products at sea from a point within the boundaries of any State or the exclusive economic zone to a point outside the United States to any applicant who meets specified requirements and pays a certain fee.
Prohibits making an allocation to a foreign nation for a fishery that is not subject to a fishery management plan. Prohibits approving a foreign fishing application for Atlantic mackerel or Atlantic herring unless the appropriate Fishery Management Council has recommended approval. Requires any such approval to include the conditions and restrictions recommended by the Council.
Extends the period for congressional review of a governing international fishing agreement from 60 calendar days of continuous session of the Congress to 120 calendar days (excluding any days in a period for which the Congress is adjourned sine die) after the date the President transmits it to the Congress.
(Sec. 6) Requires the Secretary to submit to specified congressional committees an annual list of nations that authorize large-scale drift net fishing beyond the exclusive economic zone of any nation in a manner that diminishes the effectiveness of, or is inconsistent with, any international agreement governing large-scale drift net fishing to which the United States is a party.
(Sec. 7) Sets as a national standard for fishery management plans that fishery conservation and management measures, to the maximum extent practicable, minimize bycatch.
(Sec. 8) Adds North Carolina to the membership of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Fishery Management Council. Increases that Council's number of voting members and number of members appointed by the Secretary. Revises requirements regarding voting members, compensation, the transaction of business, Council comments on Federal or State agency action that may have a detrimental effect on essential fishery habitat, various procedural matters, and disclosure of financial interest and recusal.
(Sec. 9) Revises mandatory and discretionary contents of fishery management plans. Directs the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to require fish processors and fish processing vessels to weigh fish to ensure an accurate measurement of the total harvest of each species. Requires that Fishery Impact Statements be submitted to possibly affected States and specified congressional committees.
(Sec. 10) Requires the Secretary to establish a plan development team for each highly migratory species fishery to advise the Secretary on and participate in the development of each fishery management plan or amendment.
Revises requirements applicable to conservation and management measures in any plan covering fisheries under the authority of more than one Council.
Prohibits plans from establishing a limited access system unless approved by each appropriate Council or advisory committee (currently, each appropriate Council) appointed under laws implementing international fishery agreements.
Makes permanent the program to assess the impact on fishery resources of incidental harvest by the shrimp trawl fishery. Mandates the completion of a program to develop and evaluate technological and other fishing operations changes to minimize incidental fishery resources mortality in shrimp trawling. (Current law mandates commencement of a similar program.) Requires any measure implemented to apply throughout the range of the fishery resource concerned.
Requires the Secretary to: (1) establish guidelines to assist the Councils in describing essential fishery habitat in plans; (2) establish a schedule for amending plans to describe the habitats; and (3) identify the essential fishery habitat for each fishery that has a fishery management plan. Requires each Federal agency to consult with the Secretary regarding any action that may adversely modify such habitat. Requires the Secretary, at any time that overfishing is found to be occurring in any fishery, to: (1) immediately notify the appropriate Council; (2) request that action be taken to halt the overfishing; and (3) establish a program to rebuild the fishery. Requires the Secretary to prepare a plan or amendment addressing overfishing and rebuilding if the Council fails to do so. Mandates other reassessment and rebuilding measures.
Requires the Secretary, after receiving a covered implementing regulation from a Council, to immediately: (1) review the regulation to determine whether it is consistent with the fishery management plan, the national standards, this Act, and any other applicable law; and (2) publish it in the Federal Register and provide a period for public comments. Requires the Secretary to provide the Council an explanation of his or her decision on whether to publish a final regulation.
Establishes a Pacific Region Scientific Review Group. Requires the Group to transmit to the Secretary, and directs the Secretary to implement, a research plan to assess, using private vessels, the status of the covered Pacific stocks. Allows plan cost offset by entering into agreements with vessel owners or U. S. fish processors to provide owners or processors with a portion of the allowable biological catch reserved for research under specified provisions.
(Sec. 11) Revises requirements on which members of a Council must unanimously vote in order to request emergency regulations. Increases from 90 days to 180 days (with one additional 180 day period) the time period that emergency regulations which change any existing fishery management plan or amendment shall remain in effect. Authorizes the Secretary to promulgate such regulations to protect the public health. Prohibits an emergency regulation that closes an area to fishing from remaining in effect for an additional period unless the Council publishes a report on the area fishery including an analysis of costs and benefits.
(Sec. 12) Authorizes a foreign fishing vessel to engage in fish processing within the internal waters of a State if, among other things, the owner or operator of the vessel submits to the appropriate Council periodic reports on the tonnage of fish received from U.S. vessels and the locations from which such fish were harvested. Allows a State, for any fishery occurring off the coasts of Alaska for which there is no Federal fishery management plan approved (or under a delegation to a State in a plan), to enforce its laws on the taking of fish in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) off that State or the landing of fish caught in the EEZ, providing there is a legitimate State interest in the conservation and management of that fishery, until a Federal fishery management plan is implemented. Prohibits removing, without the unanimous consent of the Council which developed a plan, from Federal to State management fisheries currently managed under the plan.
(Sec. 13) Makes it unlawful to: (1) steal or to knowingly and without authorization remove (currently, to knowingly steal, or without authorization, to remove), damage, or tamper with fishing gear in the EEZ or special areas or with fish in such gear; or (2) negligently damage, remove, or move fishing gear in the EEZ or fish in such gear.
Makes it unlawful for any person to knowingly and willfully fail to disclose or to falsely disclose any financial interest or to knowingly violate a rule under this Act as a member of the Council.
Makes it unlawful for foreign vessels to engage in fishing consisting of transporting fish products from a point within the boundaries of a State or the exclusive economic zone or the special areas unless specifically authorized.
Makes it unlawful in certain circumstances to ship or sell live lobsters that are smaller than the minimum size under the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission's American Lobster Fishery Management Plan.
(Sec. 14) Mandates development of a western Alaska community development quota program under which a percentage of the total allowable catch of any Bering Sea fishery is allocated to participating western Alaska communities.
(Sec. 15) Prohibits an observer who is ill, disabled, injured, or killed from service on a vessel from bringing a civil action against the vessel owner, except in cases of the owner's willful misconduct. Declares that such prohibition shall not apply if the observer is engaged by the vessel owner to perform any duties in service to the vessel.
(Sec. 16) Modifies the factors which must be considered in order to establish a limited access system for a fishery. Regulates individual quota systems, including the imposition of fees and the approval of plans establishing individual quota systems.
(Sec. 17) Authorizes the Secretary, with the concurrence of the Council involved, to conduct a voluntary fishing capacity reduction program for a fishery. Requires the Secretary, under such a program, to take specified steps to permanently reduce fishing capacity, including making payments to: (1) scrap or otherwise render vessels permanently unusable for fishing; and (2) acquire fishery permits. Requires that the payments be made from fee receipts. Authorizes the Secretary, with the concurrence of the Council involved, to establish an annual fee on holders of Federal fishery permits. Mandates establishment of an advisory panel for each fishery for which a capacity reduction program is conducted.
Establishes the Fisheries Conservation and Restoration Fund. Deposits in the Fund amounts appropriated under specified provisions of Federal law popularly known as the Saltonstall-Kennedy Act, receipts from such fees, any other amounts appropriated for fisheries disaster that the Secretary determines should be used for capacity reduction programs, and any other amounts appropriated for such payments. Amends the Saltonstall-Kennedy Act to allow such use of funds under that Act.
(Sec. 18) Allows (currently, requires) taking into consideration a violator's ability to pay when assessing penalties for violations of the Magnuson Act.
(Sec. 19) Authorizes appropriations to carry out the Magnuson Act.
Amends the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Marine Fisheries Program Authorization Act to authorize appropriations for the National Marine Fisheries Service for: (1) fisheries information collection and analysis; (2) fisheries conservation and management operations; and (3) fisheries State and industry assistance.
Authorizes appropriations for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for operation of the Chesapeake Bay Estuarine Resources Office.
(Sec. 21) Replaces references to the Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries of the House of Representatives throughout the Magnuson Act with references to the Committee on Resources.
(Sec. 22) Mandates: (1) a systematic program for the assessment and annual reporting to the public of the status of Gulf of Mexico fisheries; (2) development of a plan for the Gulf of Mexico region to collect, assess, and report statistics concerning the fisheries; (3) where practicable, use of private sector vessels, equipment, and services to survey U.S. fishery resources; (4) efforts to expand annual fishery resources assessments in all regions of the Nation; and (5) an independent analysis regarding Gulf of Mexico red snapper.
(Sec. 23) Requires a study and report on the contribution of bycatch to charitable organizations by commercial fishermen.
(Sec. 24) Prohibits introducing fish into interstate commerce unless the country of origin requires fish excluder devices.
(Sec. 25) Declares that it is the sense of the Congress that all equipment and products purchased with funds made available under this Act should be American made. Mandates related notice to recipients of financial assistance.
Title II: Insular Areas
- Pacific Insular Areas Fisheries Empowerment Act of 1995 - Amends the Magnuson Act to declare that it is the policy of the Congress in the Magnuson Act to assure that fishery resources adjacent to Pacific insular areas (PIAs) be explored, exploited, conserved, and managed for the benefit of the people of each such areas.
(Sec. 203) Defines "Pacific Insular Area" as American Samoa, Guam, or the Northern Mariana Islands.
(Sec. 204) Authorizes establishment of Pacific Insular Area Fishery Agreements. Directs the Secretary, to the greatest extent practicable, to support cooperative enforcement agreements between Federal and PIA authorities.
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Bill titles: To amend the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act to improve fisheries management.
Links for more info on the vote: congress.gov
