Congress to Weigh Longline Ban - Brief Article

Marine conservation leaders in the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives introduced legislation to restore over-fished billfish in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico before Congress adjourned in November.

Growing out of an agreement reached over the summer by three recreational angling organizations with the commercial fishing industry, the bills would drastically cut longline fishing. The aim is to reduce the incidental catch of gamefish like marlin while allowing stocks of swordfish, oceanic sharks and tuna to replenish themselves.

Sen. John Breaux (D-LA) introduced the Highly Migratory Species Conservation Act (S. 1911) November 10 and Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-LA) and Rep. Porter Goss (R-FL) followed shortly afterward with identical legislation in the House.

Rep. Jim Saxton (R-NJ), Chairman of the House Fisheries Conservation, Wildlife and Oceans subcommittee, also introduced similar legislation, H.R. 3331, but with several added provisions. The Coastal Conservation Association, the Billfish Foundation and the American Sportfishing Association negotiated the agreement that led to the legislation with the Blue Water Fishermen's Association, which represents Atlantic commercial longliners.

The bills would close permanently about 80,000 square nautical miles of the Atlantic, from the border of North and South Carolina to the Florida Keys, plus about 82,000 miles in the Gulf from the Mexican border to Cape San Blas, FL, for the three-month summer spawning period. An area of excessive bycatch offshore from Mobile, AL, to Panama City, FL, would be closed for eight months of the year. Past longline catch data from these areas show that an unacceptably high level of juvenile swordfish and billfish are being landed.

The bills also include provisions to buy out the permits of up to 68 longliners -- about one-third of the U.S. fleet -- who would be displaced by the closures at a cost of about $25 million, although Saxton's bill would extend the buyout to the Mid-Atlantic region and raise the price tag another $5 million. All three versions also call for research into improvements in gear and fishing practices that will cut bycatch of bill-fish and other highly migratory species by the U.S. longline industry.

In introducing S. 1911, Breaux said, "A true solution will require international cooperation but we are taking a bold first step to address the problems in our own waters."

Wasting no time, a week later U.S. negotiators took the legislative language to a meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas in Brazil. Under a treaty signed by 26 nations, the commission sets quotas and regulations for tuna, swordfish and other commercial species in international waters.