WASHINGTON (July 3, 2024) – In the present day, Reps. Jared Huffman (D-CA), Ed Case (D-HI), Mary Peltola (D-AK), and James Moylan (R-Guam) launched the Sustaining America’s Fisheries for the Future Act of 2024, a invoice that reauthorizes the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Administration Act (MSA), our nation’s major federal fisheries legislation.
“This invoice introduces stronger protections for seabirds, which depend on wholesome forage fish populations to outlive,” mentioned Bethany Carl Kraft, senior director of coastal and marine resilience on the Nationwide Audubon Society.
“By factoring within the significance of forage fish to the ocean ecosystem, accounting for the impacts of local weather change, and boosting important fish habitat protections, this invoice will strengthen the MSA for future generations.”
Seabirds are in disaster. Threatened by oil spills, overfishing, habitat loss, and getting by accident hooked on fishing gear, seabird populations world wide have declined by 70 % since 1950.
Seabirds depend on small, education fish often known as forage fish to eat and to feed their chicks. Forage fish should not but included in federal fisheries administration, leaving them susceptible to overfishing.
Massive fish, whales, and dolphins additionally feed on forage fish, making them important for the business and leisure fishing industries in addition to ecotourism.
The Sustaining America’s Fisheries for the Future Act provides new provisions to the MSA, like accounting for the wants of seabirds and different predators when deciding what number of forage fish may be caught.
The invoice additionally elements local weather become the fisheries administration course of, prevents seabirds and different wildlife from changing into hooked or entangled by fishing gear, and gives higher protections for coastal habitats like seagrass beds that function nurseries and feeding grounds for each birds and fish.
This article by Rachel Guillory was first revealed by Audubon on 3 July 2024. Lead Picture: Elegant Terns. Foto: Sandrine Biziaux-Scherson/Audubon Pictures Awards.
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