HM 553

1	House Memorial
2	A memorial to the Congress of the United States, urging
3	Congress to consider all available mechanisms to lessen
4	the sudden impact of the changes made to the Magnuson-
5	Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 2007
6	and seek to balance resource protection and economic
7	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 that 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.

CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.