WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) is pushing legislation that for the first time would give Rhode Island fishermen a seat at the table of the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (MAFMC), a government board that establishes fishery management rules for federal waters off the mid-Atlantic coast.  Reed’s bill, the Rhode Island Fishermen’s Fairness Act of 2011, would add Rhode Island to the list of seven states with voting representation on the council. 

The MAFMC has final say over quotas and fisheries management issues that directly impact Rhode Island fishermen and the state’s economy.  Currently the voting panel includes representatives from: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina.

Rhode Island’s stake in the Mid-Atlantic fishery is hardly incidental.  According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) data, Rhode Island accounts for approximately a quarter of the catch from this fishery, and its landings are greater than the combined total of landings for the states of  New York, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina.  In fact, only one state, New Jersey, lands more MAFMC regulated species than Rhode Island.

“This is a serious flaw in our fisheries management system, which denies the fishermen of my state a voice in the management of many of the stocks that they catch and rely upon for their livelihoods,” said Reed, a member of the Appropriations Subcommittee that oversees the U.S. Department of Commerce’s funding.  “This council has enormous significance in the lives and livelihoods of Rhode Island fishermen, but currently, no Rhode Islanders get a say in how the council votes.  That needs to change.”

Members of the MAFMC are nominated by the governors of their respective states and then appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to serve three-year terms and may not serve more than three consecutive terms.

This legislation offers a simple solution.  Following current practice, the Rhode Island Fishermen’s Fairness Act would create two seats on the MAFMC for Rhode Island: one seat appointed by the Secretary of Commerce based on recommendations from the Governor of Rhode Island, and a second seat filled by Rhode Island’s principal state official with marine fishery management responsibility.  To accommodate these new members, the MAFMC would increase in size from 21 voting members to 23.

Pursuant to a provision Reed authored in the Magnuson-Stevens Reauthorization Act of 2006, the MAFMC reported to Congress on this issue in 2007 and confirmed that there is a precedent for this proposal.  As the report notes, North Carolina’s representatives in Congress succeeded in adding that state to the MAFMC through an amendment to the Sustainable Fisheries Act in 1996.  Like Rhode Island, a significant proportion of North Carolina’s landed fish species were managed by the MAFMC, yet the state had no vote on the council. 

Today, North Carolina is represented on both the Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic Fishery Management Councils.

“With mounting economic, ecological, and regulatory challenges, it is more important than ever that Rhode Island’s fishing community has a voice in the management of the fisheries they depend on,” concluded Reed.  “I look forward to working with Senator Whitehouse, who is a cosponsor of the legislation, and my other colleagues to restore a measure of equity to the fisheries management process by passing the Rhode Island Fishermen’s Fairness Act.”

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