Strengthening Fishing Communities and Increasing Flexibility in Fisheries Management Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. Chairman, recently, the Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus held its annual Member shoot-out, where Members get together from the Republican and Democrat sides and shoot a round of sporting clays, skeets, and trap. It is a friendly day where we get together and have some great competition. It is in the interest of the shooting sports and of our outdoor efforts there. And it was a great privilege to be there with the other Members.

We had a record turnout this year of Members from both sides of the aisle. We are blessed that Team Republican will retain the shoot-out trophy this year but by a narrow margin, with a winning score of 235-227.

It is a real honor for me to serve as the co-chair of the Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation. I have Congressman Jeff Duncan of South Carolina here, who is our co-vice chairman; and we also have Congressman Tim Walz, who is our other co-chairman.

With that, Mr. Chairman, I yield to the gentleman from the great State of Minnesota (Mr. Walz), the co-chair of our caucus.

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Mr. Chairman, as co-chairman of the Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1335, the Strengthening Fishing Communities and Increasing Flexibility in Fisheries Management Act, and would like to thank my colleagues, Chairman Rob Bishop and Subcommittee Chairman Don Young, for all their efforts to bring this important piece of legislation to the House floor for a vote.

Mr. Chairman, according to the latest report released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in 2012, the U.S. domestic seafood industry had a sales impact of $141 billion and supported approximately 1.3 million jobs. H.R. 1335 makes the necessary reforms to support these jobs and our fishermen by promoting better science and requiring State and local data to be considered in Federal decisionmaking about fisheries.

Last year I spoke with commercial fishermen from the Pacific Coast, Atlantic Coast, and the Gulf of Mexico, and the common theme in our discussions was the need for better data and scientific analysis to improve management.

The U.S. has a long and profitable heritage in fishing. To continue that heritage, we need to have quality, diverse data and scientific analysis to facilitate educated decisionmaking on fishery management. H.R. 1335 allows for just that.

Mr. Chairman, the bill increases transparency and provides much-needed flexibility in the law for fishery managers to properly consider the environmental and economic impacts of decisions affecting fishing communities. And it is important to note that H.R. 1335 makes all of these key reforms to fisheries management without authorizing any new additional Federal spending. We can do the job with the existing resources.

This bill also makes great strides in the saltwater recreational fisheries. Saltwater recreational fishing alone has a $70 billion impact on our Nation's economy and supports over 454,000 jobs. Marinas, grocery stores, restaurants, motels, lodges, tackle shops, boat dealerships, clothing manufacturers, gas stations, and a host of other businesses and entities benefit from the money spent by recreational anglers.

This industry does not just impact coastal communities but enables job creation and robust economic development in a variety of regions across the country.

Improving recreational data collection and a transparent review of allocations in the Southeast are all great tools that H.R. 1335 gives NOAA to effectively manage a recreational industry that is a significant economic player in the United States economy.

H.R. 1335 is widely supported by a coalition of sportsmen and conservation groups, including the Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation and the Center for Coastal Conservation.

I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on H.R. 1335 in support of access to our Nation's resources and the 1.3 million jobs that are supported by fishing.

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Mr. Chairman, my amendment would give the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, Fisheries the authority to implement management practices better suited to the nature and scope of recreational fishing.

I hope we can all agree that commercial and recreational fisheries are fundamentally different activities, with dissimilar harvest data collection systems that can benefit from different management techniques.

Commercial fisheries are managed for yield. Commercial landings can usually be counted or weighed in realtime; thus, quotas can be enforced in realtime. This allows managers to close a fishery well before the allowable catch is exceeded. In short, a commercial fishery's catch can be managed in realtime based on data from verified landings.

Recreational fisheries are different and should be managed for expectation, as opposed to yield. Anglers fish for a variety of reasons, but a lack of fish will make them go less frequently or stop altogether. Anglers and fishermen need to believe they will have opportunity to encounter fish, with the hopes they may catch some, possibly including some large enough to take home.

Instead of yield, abundance and age structure are key elements to recreational fisheries since those factors govern both the rate of encounters and the size of fish caught. Maximizing yield has little meaning in most recreational fisheries. That is why NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service should manage recreational fisheries based on expected long-term harvest rates, not strictly on yield or poundage-based quotas.

This strategy has been successfully used by State fisheries managers in our freshwater and coastal fisheries, providing exceptional recreational fishing opportunities while ensuring sustainable fish populations.

By managing the recreational sector based on harvest rate as opposed to a poundage-based quota, managers have been able to provide predictability in regulations while also sustaining a healthy population.

While the Magnuson-Stevens Act does not specifically prohibit such an approach, it should specifically direct the National Marine Fisheries Service and regional councils to consider alternative strategies to commercial management for appropriate recreationally valuable fisheries.

I urge my colleagues to support this amendment that provides additional flexibility to improve the management of important recreational fisheries.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. Chairman, I would tell the gentleman from Arizona that this amendment does not in any way stop National Marine Fisheries Service or the councils from preventing overfishing and making the needed changes to management.

This bill purely provides them the flexibility and adaptability to properly manage recreational fisheries which, as the gentleman from Arizona said, we all know are different than those commercial fisheries.

I want to make sure that they have the opportunity to manage the fisheries properly and especially in light of recreational fishermen and the local economies that depend on viable, sustainable recreational fisheries.

We know that we have to make sure we are making good resource decisions, and we do that by providing that flexibility and adaptability. This amendment allows us to do that.

It allows recreational fisheries and the management thereof to be treated different than commercial fisheries which we have all seen through time we must do if we are to manage them in the best interest not only of the resource itself--that is the fish--but to manage it in the best interest of our recreational fishermen and the economies that depend on them.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time

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