As the new home of OSPIRG's environmental work, Environment Oregon can be contacted regarding this news release.
Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV), ranking Democrat on the U.S. House Resources Committee,
Rep. Sam Farr, Co-Chair of the House Oceans Caucus, and 12 members of Congress
today introduced legislation that would help eliminate long-standing financial
conflicts of interest, unbalanced representation, and poor conservation decisions
in the fisheries management system. This is the first piece of legislation that
would enact policy proposals made by the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy and
the Pew Oceans Commission.
According to the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy (USCOP), social, economic,
and political factors have led the Fishery Management Councils (FMCs) —the
bodies in charge of managing regional fisheries—to downplay the best available
scientific information, resulting in overfishing and the slow recovery of overfished
stocks.
“This is what happens when the fox is left to guard the henhouse. And in
this case, the foxes are government-appointed,” stated OSPIRG Environmental
Advocate Jeremy Wright.
A report by Stanford University found that sixty percent of the appointed members
of the FMCs have a direct financial stake in the fisheries they regulate. This
results in short-term interests being served at the expense of the health and
rebuilding of fisheries and ocean ecosystems, according to OSPIRG and the USCOP.
Current law mandates that the FMCs have balanced representation from commercial
and recreational fishermen, but it does not designate that the public interest
be represented on these councils. Last week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration Fisheries Service appointed new members to its eight regional
FMCs, but no members from the conservation community were appointed.
The Rahall-Farr legislation amends the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation
and Management Act, which governs federally managed ocean fish. The bill seeks
to broaden participation on the fishery management councils to include members
of the public, to significantly reduce financial conflicts of interest of those
on the councils, and to ensure that political and economic influences do not
override conservation decisions on the health of the fish populations.
OSPIRG’s Wright lauded Reps. Rahall and Farr and their fellow cosponsors
for the introduction of this landmark bill, saying: “This is just the kind
of action we need to protect and conserve our precious oceans.”
Oregon State Public Interest Research Group is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public
interest advocacy organization with 28,000 citizen members.
