Page updated on 09/27/07
 

Magnuson Reauthorized
What Changes Can We Expect
 

    
     On January 12, 2007, President Bush signed into law the "Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act of 2006." Since its enactment in 1976, the Act has been reauthorized six times. Last amended in 1996 through the Sustainable Fisheries Act (SFA), H.R. 5946 is the culmination of a process that spanned two years.
     Some changes incorporated into this new Act include: encouraging ecosystem approaches to fisheries management, promoting the use of market based for fisheries management, establishing guidelines for limited access privilege programs, adding requirements to end overfishing, specifying formalized peer review of science, mechanisms to streamline the regulatory process and allowing for increases in fisheries penalties. These new requirements that govern fishing activities in federal waters will impact how we manage fish and fishermen in the region.
     Attendees joined this panel for a discussion of the “new” Magnuson-Stevens Act, what changes are on the way and how this relates to fisheries management in the northeast.

     Host:  Maggie Raymond, Associated Fisheries of Maine and Mary Beth Tooley, East Coast Pelagic Assn.