Magnuson–Stevens Act Reauthorization And The Gulf Of Maine
by Mike Crowe

Panelist Paul Howard, Executive Director of New England Fisheries Management Council. “We are definitely not going back to the good old days. Then we were catching six to seven out of 10 fish. Now we are expected to leave four out of five fish in the water.” Photo: Fishermen's Voice

It took 10 years of discussion, debate and congressional wrangling to arrive at reauthorization. There is a lot in the Magnuson-Stevens Reauthorization that will be brought to public light over the next few months.

Regional impacts of the reauthorized Magnuson-Stevens Act were discussed at the Fishermen’s Forum in Rockland, March 3. The act, which was first passed in 1976in response to the Stratton Report of 1969, is the fundamental law governing resources in federal waters. The Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance (NAMA) and others had spent the last 10 years working with the New England Congressional delegation in an effort to get a reauthorization that would help protect small-scale fishermen from consolidation.

At a meeting at the Fishermen’s Forum in Rockland, which focused on the new Magnuson Act, Maine Representative Tom Allen talked about aspects of the Act that will serve to protect small boat fishing in the Gulf of Maine. Allen helped broker a compromise on critical language in the Act in the wee hours of the 109th Congress on the House floor.

Allen has said that the inclusion of the amendments in the final bill will assure that small operations will continue to have access to their fair share of the resource and won’t be swept aside by big industrial fishing operations. An important part of the compromise was an agreement on a “sunset provision” for a 10-year review of any quota programs that are adopted. This is to ensure they are meeting their goals.

This review period, and the referendum, are critical components to protect the long-term interests of the region’s fish and fishermen,” said Craig Pendleton of NAMA.

The Magnuson Act is a big document with broad scope and implications. The provisions won for small operations and, in particular, family-owned boats and fleets, is a very important component, but only one of many addressed in the keystone document.

Cyrus Hamlin. “Unless the management system changes I fear that in another 30 years we may be here again, going over the same ground.  We are not going to be able to do anything by trying to manage one species, we must do the whole thing.” Photo: Fishermen's Voice

The meeting’s panel pointed out that the U.S. currently imports 80% of its seafood. By 2030 demand for seafood is expected to be enormous. Poised to figure into this trade deficit is the aquaculture industry. These numbers and references to foreign competition are similar to those presented in the late 1960’s regarding groundfish. The U.S government then poured money into loans for building big boats for the groundfish industry. The results of that response led to the stock shortages that the government has been trying to fix ever since. Some expressed concern over exuberant government funding of aquaculture in response to the import demands could have similar negative outcomes.

A fisherman in attendance said he had been in the fisheries since1949 and that unless the management system changes he fears that in another 30 years we may be here again, going over the same ground. He said that “we are not going to be able to do anything by trying to manage one species, we must do the whole thing.”

Panelist Paul Howard, Executive Director of New England Fisheries Management Council, in response to a reference to the past abundance of the resource said, “We are definitely not going back to the good old days. Then we were catching six to seven out of 10 fish. Now we are expected to leave four out of five fish in the water. Permits will be going from 2,000 now to about 400 to 500 in the future.”

The reauthorized Magnuson Act calls for a range of proposed changes. However, pressure on the national budget has called into question how much budget support there will be. The U.S. fisheries are,, according to the panel, while multi-national fisheries are poorly managed. Congress wants to address illegal, unreported fishing. It wants to find and identify international perpetrators and curtail and prosecute them. Congress has recommended international sanctions, collaborative and unilateral actions using the economic power of the U.S.

But, Representative Allen said that going forward we are in a deep financial hole. With a change of administration there may be more for domestic spending, however, the war in Iraq is the leading expense.