WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), Vice Chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, today urged the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to address the threat of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.  Senator Stevens questioned Vice Admiral Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr., the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA Administrator, about the steps being taken to prevent foreign fishing fleets from pillaging the world’s oceans during the Committee’s NOAA oversight hearing.

Below are excerpts of the hearing:

Senator Stevens: “I note that there’s one million dollars for [international] fisheries enforcement, and I question whether this is enough to deal with law enforcement in the fisheries area, particularly in view of this really expanding threat from the IUU fisheries. Where are you going to get the money for law enforcement?”

Vice Admiral Lautenbacher: “It’s not a lot of money, I agree, but it’s put in some very critical areas.  We have two major thrusts that we’re trying to work on.  First of all, is to find out what’s going on, on the high seas.  We’re working intently through the Regional Fisheries Management Organizations, the international organizations that have regulations and have visibility into what’s going on in the various parts of our oceans. … So, we’re putting more effort into trying to ensure we understand what’s coming out of those organizations and so that we can have the enforcement, so the products that are illegally taken, do not enter this country and we can stand up and make a case in the world court of opinion to ensure that they are not being marketed in other places as well.”

Senator Stevens:  “We’ve got to have legislation that’s non-partisan, that’s directed towards ending IUU fisheries, and if we don’t, the fish that we get and we harvest for our nation off of Alaska are going to be gone.  Already we’re seeing runs completely disappear, as you know.  We had areas that produce salmon for years and years and years, and all the sudden, bam, they’re closed.  No fish there at all.  That’s only coming about because of this IUU fishing.  Now, I don’t see a sense of urgency coming out of this plan, and I hope you would take that on.  I really do.  You have the capability to do it and I really think, somehow or other, we have to find a way to take this to the UN… I would like to have a meeting, a bipartisan meeting, with members of this committee and representatives of your agency, the Coast Guard, and the State Department to see what we’re going to do about this, because unless we wake up, there’s not going to be any fisheries left in the North Pacific.  It’s very, very serious in my opinion.”

Senator Stevens and Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) recently introduced a bill to close the gaps in United States law that currently allow illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fish products to enter the country.  The International Fisheries Stewardship and Enforcement Act of 2008 (S. 2907) would strengthen fisheries law enforcement programs and would assist developing countries with fisheries monitoring and enforcement.