Fisheries Champion Grader Gets Nod in MSA Reauthorization Bill

Zeke Grader, right, fisherman, lawyer and fishing industry advocate at a ceremony in recognition of his 50 years of service to the industry in Sausalito, California in May 2015.

Congressman Sablan (D-MP) last month introduced H.R. 1826, a Democratic version of a Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA) reauthorization bill, which has been getting less press than its Republican counterpart.

H.R. 1826 is notable for maintaining the level of fisheries protections in the current MSA, without backsliding on stock rebuilding deadlines similar to that found in the Republican MSA reauthorization, H.R. 1335.

Among the bill’s other provisions is the renaming of the Fisheries Conservation & Management Fund (FCMF) for Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations/IFR’s very own William F. “Zeke” Grader, Jr., renowned defender of the fisheries. The FCMF provides cash for fisheries research as to facilitate science-based management of marine natural resources, a cause for which Grader has been advocating for decades.