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

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