WILL THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE SUPPORT THE U.S. SEAFOOD INDUSTRY?

What is the national problem?

The Magnuson-Stevens Act, the law that regulates the fisheries of the U.S., is not being implemented as Congress intended. The Department of Commerce (DOC) is under assault from 100+ lawsuits, most filed by the environmental industry. Political pressure from radical environmental organizations has made impossible any attempts to clarify the flexibility Congress originally intended for the law.

Several members of the U.S. Senate have stated that the law provides all the flexibility needed for fisheries managers to account for conservation objectives and the economic impacts of fishing restrictions on the industry and fishing communities. These Congressional leaders have repeatedly complained that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is too rigid in its interpretation of the law’s conservation mandates. (See enclosed letter from Sens. Collins (R-ME) and Kennedy (D-MA) describing how the National Standard Guidelines differ from Congressional intent for the Magnuson-Stevens Act.)

What is the New England problem?

The managers of New England groundfish fishery are under a court-ordered deadline to impose new fishing restrictions by August 2003. The “scientific” advice is that while groundfish stocks have increased three-fold (see biomass chart) in the last several years, fishing effort must be further, and significantly, constrained. New England groundfishermen are today operating under the most severe restrictions ever known to the fishery. Even environmentalist organizations such as the Conservation Law Foundation acknowledge that the most recent regulatory decision "definitely constitutes the toughest fisheries management restrictions this region has ever seen." Additional restrictions now pending will cause the bankruptcy of hundreds of fishing and fishing dependent businesses in New England.

Last month, scientists at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center admitted that the government’s survey vessel used to collect information critical to estimations of stock abundance and fishing mortality rates has been using improperly calibrated fishing gear for 2 ½ years. Expert fishermen, subsequently asked to study the fishing gear used, uncovered a number of additional problems with the gear and the survey protocol (see enclosed document titled “Problems with the Survey Gear”).

This inexcusable debacle leaves fishery managers without accurate or reliable information needed to update the present status of the stocks and determine if additional reductions in fishing effort are in fact warranted.

What can a reasonable, pro-business Administration do to resolve these problems?

The DOC can and should endorse the rebuilding flexibility language in the Fisheries Research Improvement Act (S2972) introduced by Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME)

The DOC can and should instruct staff to immediately review the National Standard Guidelines and amend those guidelines to provide more flexibility to the managers of our nation’s fisheries.

The DOC can and should immediately inform the U.S. District Court in Washington, DC that

· information needed to determine the present status of the resource is fatally flawed and that it

would be irresponsible to use such information as the basis for new fishing restrictions;

· that accurate information needed cannot be made available without at least 2 years of new surveys with properly calibrated fishing gear; and

· therefore, the DOC requires a minimum two-year delay in meeting the court-ordered deadline.