Strengthening Fishing Communities and Increasing Flexibility in Fisheries Management Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Chairman, the Clerk has an amendment at the desk.

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Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Chairman, at the beginning, I first of all want to salute both Mr. Young and Mr. Huffman for their hard work on this legislation, which is very contentious and requires a lot of interests to be balanced. Again, hopefully, as the process moves forward through the next Chamber, we will get to that sweet spot for good policy for our Nation.

Mr. Chairman, the amendment at the desk is a simple amendment, which creates a 5-year, industry-based pilot trawl survey for the New England and Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Councils. Such a program would follow the model industry-based trawl surveys used in the Pacific Northwest under NOAA's supervision that have been a great success.

The reason I am offering this bipartisan amendment with Congressman Lee Zeldin from New York is that NOAA trawl surveys have been seriously hampered by a string of mechanical and performance problems with NOAA's ship Henry B. Bigelow over the last 2 years.

For example, from August 2017 to March 2018, Bigelow missed several trawls while in its shipyard for chronic propulsion problems. Even when the Bigelow is operational, one-third of its trawls are not performing, and these bad trawls generally have yields that are 67 percent lower than when it performs properly.

These problems are unacceptable, given the critical importance of that data to accurately calculate catch limits on the East Coast, which, as we have heard, is a highly contentious issue.

In addition to the Bigelow's gear issues, the vessel is too large for near-shore studies. It draws a lot of water and cannot enter shallow littoral areas to trawl. Because of that, NOAA already contracts with the Northeast Area Monitoring and Assessment Program, NEAMAP, to survey shallower areas. NEAMAP contracts industry vessels outfitted with peer- reviewed NOAA gear for near-shore surveys, proving that surveying can be done on industry vessels.

I want to emphasize that this pilot program contemplated in the amendment will be a pilot program coordinated with NOAA, the councils, and industry. While we don't dictate a specific framework, we recommend that the pilot mirror the NEAMAP survey, which the executive directors of both the New England and Mid-Atlantic Councils have described as the gold standard of cooperative, collaborative fisheries surveys.

Mr. Chairman, this amendment is a responsible initiative to solve a real-life problem using a trusted precedent in the Pacific Northwest and under the careful supervision of NOAA and fisheries experts.

I want to thank the Northeast Trawl Advisory Panel for bringing attention to the trawl gaps that are happening on the East Coast and working with my office to craft this amendment.

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Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Chairman, I have no further speakers for the amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I urge a ``yes'' vote, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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