A U.S. Senate committee has approved legislation that would increase restrictions on vessels engaged in harmful fishing practices, recommending that the full Senate pass the bill.
“This is another measure in a long line of bipartisan comprehensive bills that [U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island)] and I have been introducing and passing over the last several years,” U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) said after the committee voted in favor of his bill, pointing to the 2020 Save Our Seas Act. “President Trump has been a big supporter of these clean ocean legislation initiatives, and now we have the FISH Act, which is focused on illegal, unreported, and unregulated [IUU] fishing, which is both a challenge globally, it’s a challenge for our country, and it’s certainly a challenge in Alaska.”
If passed into law, the Fighting Foreign Illegal Seafood Harvest (FISH) Act would establish a blacklist of vessels with a history of engaging in illegal, unreported, or unregulated fishing. Those vessels would be banned from the United States’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ). The bill also orders the U.S. Coast Guard to conduct more inspections of suspicious fishing vessels.
“Globally, IUU fishing makes up approximately 20 percent of global seafood harvested. Catches result in economic losses estimated between [USD] 10-23 billion [EUR 9-20 billion] to fisheries that fish legally each year,” Sullivan said. “For Alaska, IUU fishing is a growing threat. It certainly is a major factor on our very low commercial salmon harvests that we’ve had in the last few years. There are many reasons for a smaller salmon catch in Alaska, but one of them, clearly, Mr. Chairman, is IUU fishing in the North Pacific and parts outside of Alaska’s waters.”
Sullivan also pointed to Russia’s and China’s …
