Yesterday, Congressmen Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) and Ed Case (D-Hawaii) introduced the Sustaining America’s Fisheries for the Future Act to reauthorize the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA), America’s primary law governing marine fisheries. MSA has not been reauthorized since 2006. The recreational fishing community commends Reps. Huffman and Case for their thorough approach to drafting the legislation, which included stakeholder roundtables on each coast and the invitation to stakeholders to provide input on the discussion draft of the bill. ”While MSA has made…
Read MoreThe American Sportfishing Association(ASA) today announced its support for two bipartisan bills to help restore land and water surrounding abandoned mines that would otherwise threaten fisheries and nearby communities. The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Amendments Act of 2021 and the Revitalizing the Economy of Coal Communities by Leveraging Local Activities and Investing More Act of 2021 (RECLAIM) were introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Reps. Matt Cartwright (D-Pa.) and Glenn Thompson (R-Pa.), and Reps. Cartwright (D-Pa.) and Hal…
Read MoreAs of today, 42 hunting, fishing and conservation organizations have taken a significant step forward for conservation by officially joining as signatories to the “Hunting and Fishing Community Statement on the 30 by 30 Initiative.” The coalition gained 29 new signatories since the coalition’s establishment in October. The “Thirty by Thirty Initiative” (30 by 30 Initiative) seeks to establish a goal of protecting 30% of the planet’s lands and waters by the year 2030 and is linked to global land…
Read MoreSens. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.V.) reintroduced the Driftnet Modernization and Bycatch Reduction Act which aims to align state and federal policy to support the modernization of California’s swordfish fishery. The California drift gillnet fishery is the last remaining fishery in the country using these types of large mesh gillnets – which are a mile long and indiscriminately catch anything in their path. Last Congress, this legislation received unanimous support from the Senate and passed the House by a…
Read MoreLast week, the bipartisan “Save our Seas Act 2.0” was passed and sent to the president for signature. The “Save our Seas Act 2.0” was introduced to address the plastic debris crisis threatening coastal economies and harming marine life; it also recognizes this crisis needs to be dealt with on a global scale. The time for action is NOW. Failure to act could doom the oceans to a future of lifeless and underproducing fisheries, unable to contribute to feeding the…
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