Florida Senate - 2010                                    SM 1168
       
       
       
       By Senator Baker
       
       
       
       
       20-01056-10                                           20101168__
    1                           Senate Memorial                         
    2         A memorial to the Congress of the United States,
    3         urging Congress to consider all available mechanisms
    4         to lessen the sudden impact of the changes made to the
    5         Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management
    6         Act of 2007 and seek to balance resource protection
    7         and economic prosperity in Florida.
    8  
    9         WHEREAS, the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and
   10  Management Act of 2007 emphasized preventing overfishing and
   11  rebuilding overfished stocks, and
   12         WHEREAS, recent revisions to the act were prompted in part
   13  by criticism of progress toward ending overfishing and
   14  rebuilding fish stocks, and
   15         WHEREAS, such revisions impose significant restrictions on
   16  commercial and recreational fishing in federal waters and
   17  prohibitively short deadlines to end overfishing, and
   18         WHEREAS, every federally managed fishery is required to
   19  implement annual catch limits and accountability measures by
   20  2011, except with respect to Florida, and
   21         WHEREAS, Florida is required to implement annual catch
   22  limits by 2010 which are low enough to end, and then prevent,
   23  overfishing for federally managed species that are subject to
   24  overfishing, as determined by the United States Secretary of
   25  Commerce, and
   26         WHEREAS, such requirements include accountability measures
   27  which stipulate that if catch limits are exceeded for such
   28  federally managed species, federal actions must be stipulated to
   29  compensate for the harvest overage, and
   30         WHEREAS, the consequence of such accountability measures is
   31  that certain types of fishing activity, such as recreational
   32  fishing, could be faced with ever-increasing limits imposed over
   33  a minimal timeframe, and
   34         WHEREAS, in the federal waters of the South Atlantic, there
   35  are 10 species of economically important reef fish that are
   36  subject to the new deadline, and
   37         WHEREAS, a number of similar actions to restrict harvest of
   38  reef fish in the Gulf of Mexico have been instituted, and
   39         WHEREAS, federal managers are considering a complete
   40  closure of all fishing for the Atlantic red snapper fishery, and
   41         WHEREAS, severely restricting or eliminating harvest for 10
   42  of the state’s most valuable reef fish species simultaneously
   43  will have the unfortunate impact of putting people out of
   44  business, and
   45         WHEREAS, the act requires federal managers to use the best
   46  scientific information available to end overfishing and provide
   47  future sustainable harvest, and
   48         WHEREAS, even though fishery scientists are using the best
   49  scientific information available, there continues to be
   50  inadequate funding to conduct the level of fisheries monitoring
   51  and research work necessary to meet the standards of the act,
   52  and
   53         WHEREAS, to meet such standards, it is imperative to
   54  provide federal fishery managers with the financial means
   55  necessary to gather and analyze more complete and continuous
   56  information on the status of fish stocks, and
   57         WHEREAS, consistent with these conservation requirements,
   58  recent changes to the act direct that economic impacts to
   59  fishing communities be minimized and that mechanisms be provided
   60  to support the economic health of fishing communities, and
   61         WHEREAS, every effort should be made to provide economic
   62  assistance to key fishing industries and businesses that cannot
   63  survive the restrictions being implemented by recent changes to
   64  the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act of
   65  2007, NOW, THEREFORE,
   66  
   67  Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   68  
   69         That the Congress of the United States is requested to
   70  consider all available mechanisms to lessen the sudden impact of
   71  the changes made to the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation
   72  and Management Act of 2007 and seek to balance resource
   73  protection and economic prosperity in Florida.
   74         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
   75  dispatched to the President of the United States, to the
   76  President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the
   77  United States House of Representatives, and to each member of
   78  the Florida delegation to the United States Congress.