Contact: Gordon Helm FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2/27/96
The Commerce Department's National Marine Fisheries Service is conducting a review of regulations to eliminate, consolidate or revise them to make the service more efficient, less costly, and more responsive to the country's fishing industry, Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown announced. This includes considering the elimination of six federal fishery management plans and their implementing regulations.
"The regulatory reform plan is part of the Clinton administration's reinventing government initiative to streamline the federal bureaucracy," Secretary Brown said. "This is another example that the 'era of big government is over,' as the President said in his State of the Union address."
Brown said the administration has already eliminated more than 16,000 pages of government regulations and more are to be deleted under the reform plan.
"Final action to consolidate, revise, or eliminate almost all of the fisheries service's regulations should be completed by June 1, meeting the President's timetable under the National Performance Review's reinventing government initiative," stated Secretary Brown.
The six fishery management plans proposed for elimination include the American lobster plan in the New England region and the bluefish management plan in the Mid-Atlantic region. The fisheries service believes that there is now authority under the Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Cooperative Management Act to manage these two fisheries through the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, a multi-state body that regulates fisheries that range across waters of more than one state on the Atlantic coast.
In addition, the spiny lobster, stone crab, northern anchovy and high seas salmon management plans are to be eliminated. Both the spiny lobster and stone crab fisheries are found primarily in state waters of Florida and the fisheries service believes that state management authority should be sufficient to manage the resources. The state of California management authority should be sufficient to manage the northern anchovy fishery off its coast, and the state of Alaska management authority is expected to be sufficient to manage the salmon fishery within its state waters and adjacent federal waters.
"The consolidations and improvements in fishery regulations will be accomplished without weakening the protection for our fishery resources," said Rolland Schmitten, fisheries service director. "The end result will be shorter, more readable regulations that fishermen and others in the industry will find easier to use and understand."
Fisheries service officials have carefully scrutinized all of the regulations under its purview and have identified those regulations that can be eliminated without compromising the successful accomplishments of the agency's missions. Fisheries officials have also determined that the volume of the remaining regulations can be reduced by carefully consolidating and redrafting existing language.
Under the regulatory reform plan, the fisheries service will also consolidate all regulations implemented under the authority of the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act by region of the country. This action will eliminate duplication, where possible, and will update and reorganize regulatory text where necessary to improve comprehension and clarity.