{"bills":[{"photos":{"featured":"https://assets.causes.com/bill/photo/hr1335-114/featured_strengthening-fishing-communities-and-increasing-flexibility-in-fisheries-management-act-1454548147.jpg","featured_large":"https://assets.causes.com/bill/photo/hr1335-114/featured_large_strengthening-fishing-communities-and-increasing-flexibility-in-fisheries-management-act-1454548147.jpg","shareable":"https://n.causes.com/share-images/bills/hr1335-114.png"},"introduced_on":"2015-03-04","title_override":"Eliminating a 10-Year Timeline to Rebuild Fisheries, and More Flexibility for Fishery Management Councils","summary_override":"

This bill would reauthorize the Magnuson-Stevens Act — the primary law governing how fisheries are managed and general fishing activities in federal waters. The original Magnuson-Stevens Act created eight Regional Fishery Management Councils. This reauthorization aims to offer more resources and flexibility to Councils for managing their fisheries.

Under current law, overfished and depleted fisheries are required to rebuild over a 10-year timeframe where no fishing takes place. This bill would replace that requirement with a timeframe that considers the time needed to restore fish populations, plus one mean generation — basically a fish's lifespan. The rebuilding period would be as short as practicable given the biology of the fishery.

Councils could phase-in rebuilding plans for dynamic fisheries over a three-year period to lessen the harm to fishing communities, and could consider environmental conditions and predator/prey relationships when developing rebuilding plans.

When setting up Annual Catch Limits (ACLs), Councils would be directed to consider changes in the fishery’s ecosystem and the economic needs of the fishing communities — giving them flexibility without setting ACLs at a level allowing overfishing. Fish that are accidentally caught and are unlikely to be overfished would not need to have an ACL set for them, and fish with a life cycle shorter than 18 months would also not require an ACL as long as the mortality won’t impact the fishery.

","official_title":"To amend the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act to provide flexibility for fishery managers and stability for fishermen, and for other purposes.","short_title":"Strengthening Fishing Communities and Increasing Flexibility in Fisheries Management Act","popular_title":null,"short_summary":"Strengthening Fishing Communities and Increasing Flexibility in Fisheries Management Act \n\nThis bill revises and reauthorizes through FY2019 the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA).\n\n(Sec. 4) To distinguish between fish that are depleted due to fishing and those that are depleted for other reasons, the term \"depleted\" replaces the term \"overfished\" throughout the MSA. A depleted stock has a biomass that has declined below a level that jeopardizes the capacity of the stock or stock complex (multiple fish stocks) to produce a maximum sustainable yield on a continuing basis.\n\nFishery plans for depleted fisheries must specify a time period for rebuilding the fishery that is as short as practicable rather than as short as possible. The bill removes a requirement that plans for rebuilding depleted fisheries not exceed a 10-year time frame and replaces it with a requirement that the rebuilding time frame not exceed the time the stock would be rebuilt without fishing ...","summarized":true,"cost":1500000000,"cost_commentary":"The CBO estimates that implementing this bill would cost $1.5 billion over the 2016-2020 period, which is $300 million per year, and $72 million after 2020.","impact":"People employed in the fishing industry or who live in fishing communities, people who eat fish, state fishing agencies, Regional Fishery Management Councils, NOAA, the Secretary of Commerce.","argument_for":"Letting the Fisheries Management Councils develop a regional plan to manage fisheries that takes into account local fish populations and ecosystems is as common sense as it gets. 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Eliminating a 10-Year Timeline to Rebuild Fisheries, and More Flexibility for Fishery Management Councils