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Strengthen Our National Ocean Fish Law

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A major threat to our nation’s fishing stocks is growing as Congress begins the process of reauthorizing the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act.

This Act, the principal law governing U.S. fishery management, has helped 34 fish populations recover from overfishing since 2000—bringing sustainable jobs to coastal communities.

Sadly, not everyone likes strong regulations. Many industrial fishing companies and some recreational fishing businesses would prefer to go back to a "flexible" application of the law, policies that existed in the 1980s and 90s, when many important fish stocks collapsed.

Representative Doc Hastings, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, recently circulated his proposal to amend the Magnuson-Stevens Act that would:

The Extinction Act would harm imperiled species by:

  • Allow overfishing of depleted fish populations
  • Cripple the rebuilding of overfished stocks with loopholes and excuses for inaction
  • Reducing the role of science in setting annual catch limits
  • Exempt fisheries management from broader environmental review
  • Limit the public’s access to fishery data (even data collected with taxpayer dollars)

The committee now wants your reaction to Representative Hasting’s draft bill.

Speak up today. Tell Congress America’s ocean fish law is working. Reauthorization should build on our success, not create loopholes for special interests.

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Magnuson-Stevens Discussion Draft Oceans Campaign

YOUR MESSAGE

Don't Weaken Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, It's Working!

Dear Representative,



The Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act is a strong law that is helping to rebuild our nation's fish populations, creating more fishing opportunities along our coasts, and building sustainable coastal economies for the future.

Since 2000, enforcement of Magnuson-Stevens has helped 34 fish populations recover and the number of populations subject to overfishing (catching fish faster than they can reproduce) has significantly declined.

Despite this progress, House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings circulated a draft proposal that would reestablish old policies and practices common in the 1980s and early 1990s under the guise of management "flexibility"--an era when overfishing was driving many important fish populations to ruin.

This proposal would undermine the role of science in fishery management and roll back updates to the law that have led to critical conservation gains.

For example, the Hastings bill would allow overfishing to continue on the most vulnerable fish populations for at least five years and establish big loopholes that would allow managers to ignore scientific advice and delay actions to rebuild overfished populations.

It would also reduce the public's access to fisheries data, even when it is collected using taxpayer dollars.

Chairman Hastings' proposal is being called the "Empty Oceans Act," a road map to devastating our ocean fisheries and local economies.

Rather than reverse course, we should chart a way forward that protects ocean habitats, avoids wasteful bycatch (the incidental catch of nontarget ocean wildlife), improves management of the small fish critical to the ocean food web and more profitable large fish, and broadens the scope of management to better deal with the challenges facing ocean ecosystems.

I urge you to reject the "Empty Oceans Act." Instead support measures that build upon the bipartisan success of the existing law and support healthy fish populations, coastal ecosystems, and local economies.

Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[City, State ZIP]

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