Legislation Leaves Fishing Communities Vulnerable
December 12, 2006

Oceans Legislation Leaves Fishing Communities Vulnerable
Statement of Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter

One of the final acts of the 109th Congress will have lasting effects on our nation’s oceans. The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act of 2006 will guide fisheries management in waters between three miles and 200 miles offshore until 2013.

The bill maintains key conservation initiatives first implemented a decade ago, takes a strong stand to prevent overfishing and mandates increased reliance on science in management decisions. However, Congress failed the American public, the oceans and small fishing communities by legislating the privatization of our wild fish populations through individual fishing quota programs – or limited access privilege programs, as they are referred to in the bill.

Precedent has shown that individual fishing quotas do little to protect ocean resources and are detrimental to traditional fishery dependent communities. The latest IFQ program – Crab Rationalization in the Aleutian Islands and Bering Sea – created severe hardships in Alaskan fishing communities while allowing large processors to take control of the fishery. The approved bill offers guidelines, but essentially leaves the protection of small scale fishermen and crew up to the regional fishery management councils, which are the agencies charged with developing quota programs.

Food & Water Watch will take every opportunity to defend participation rights of small fishermen and crew. We will ask the Congress to incorporate quota purchase assistance programs for small and entry level fishermen into next year’s budget. We will also be active at the regional level when individual fishing quota programs are developed and closely monitor that the national standards are upheld.

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