Magnuson-Stevens Bill Fails to Dislodge Poison Pill of Reallocations
Seafood Harvesters of America President Chris Brown issued the following statement on Thursday regarding the introduction of the Magnuson-Stevens Reauthorization Act (S.2991), introduced by Senator Mark Begich:
“The federal law governing our nation’s fisheries is working well, making the U.S. an example to the world for sustainable fishery management. However, we are deeply disappointed to see Senator Begich give in to sports fishing interests by introducing a reauthorization containing a poison pill provision that sets a dangerous precedent for replacing real science-driven accountability with arbitrary political dictates. Forcing the Gulf and South Atlantic Regional Fishery Management Councils to revisit allocations every five years could scare away banks from giving loans to many harvesters in need of upgrading the safety and efficiency of their aging vessels. So we hope that the next Congress won’t make the same mistake of letting this economically destabilizing provision plague the next bill. Congress must ensure American commercial fishermen have every chance to continue providing seafood to millions of American consumers while providing over a million jobs to our economy.”
