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Senators differ on fisheries’ operation

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Rep. Wayne Gilchrest and his chairman on the House Resources Committee have different views on how to manage the nation’s fisheries.

Gilchrest (R-Kennedyville), chairman of the Resources’ Subcommittee on Fisheries and Oceans, wants to set a hard limit on total catch, but Resources Chairman Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) said such a limit has run into trouble in the Senate.

Both lawmakers are trying to win reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976, which expired in 1999.

The act phased out foreign fishing in a 200-mile zone from the U.S. coastline and established national standards for conservation management in U.S. fisheries. Maryland’s coastal waters would be affected by any reauthorization.

Roughly 90 percent of Maryland’s commercial fishing and 75 percent of recreational catches occur off Ocean City, the state’s only ocean port, said Harley Speir, director of regulatory and compliance programs at the Department of Natural Resources Fishery Service.

Gilchrest and Pombo cooperated on other fisheries legislation this session, but differing opinions on overfishing led to separate bills on the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

Gilchrest’s bill closely mirrors a reauthorization bill in the Senate emphasizing ecosystem-friendly management and federal accountability.

‘‘We used the Senate bill as a basis, took some of the best elements from the administration bill, mixed it together, added some salt and pepper, and dropped it (into the U.S. House),” Gilchrest said.

Gilchrest’s amendments propose an annual limit called a Hard Total Allowable Catch. Fishing concerns that exceed the catch limit would have to repay the amount the following year by catching less of that fish.

Pombo’s bill did not include a Hard TAC, because a similar measure was causing heartache in the Senate, according to information from the Resources Committee. New England objected to the Hard TAC provision, because it determines its harvest limits based on days at sea.

A Hard TAC would not have a dramatic effect on Maryland, since it already operates with a similar system.