UPDATED: It increases potential for more IFQs, possible buyout of some Southeast salmon permits.
President Bush on Friday signed an overhaul of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the foremost federal law governing ocean fisheries.
Among its many components, the revised law clears the way for giving more fishermen their own catch shares, known as individual fishing quotas or IFQs.
It also provides for a $25 million federal loan to possibly buy out some Southeast Alaska salmon fishing permits.
The act has won praise from industry players and many environmentalists who agree it strengthens protections against overfishing, which has been a problem in other regions of the country such as New England more so than in Alaska.
The law is named in part for U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, who helped push it through Congress in December and whose state is the source of more than half the nation's commercial catch.
It's the first major revision of the Magnuson-Stevens Act in a decade. The original law was passed in 1976 and revolutionized U.S. ocean policy, ultimately excluding foreign fishing vessels from a 200-mile belt around the nation's coastline.
Bush signed the updated law Friday in an Oval Office ceremony with Stevens and Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, by his side, along with several East Coast lawmakers.
David Benton, executive director of the Marine Conservation Alliance, a Juneau-based coalition of seafood industry organizations and fishing ports, said the law had bipartisan support.
"It incorporates the provisions that have been so successful in making Alaska a model for fishery management," Benton said.
Among the law's provisions:
• It preserves the network of eight regional fishery management councils established in 1976 around the country, and aims to end overfishing by requiring fishery managers to set catch limits that don't exceed those recommended by scientists.
• The law establishes national guidelines for assigning IFQs in fisheries that are otherwise open competitions among the fishermen.
Creating catch rights that can be bought and sold has been controversial, with some arguing a public resource -- the fish -- shouldn't be parceled out into private hands. But supporters say IFQs make fisheries safer and help prevent overharvest.
Three Alaska fisheries already operate with IFQs -- halibut, black cod and Bering Sea crab -- and the law is a blueprint for more IFQ-based fisheries in Alaska or elsewhere.
The law allows individual quotas only for catching fish, not processing them.
• The law commits a $25 million federal loan to buy out permits in the Southeast salmon seine fleet.
The fleet is too big and has struggled with low prices caused not only by competition from foreign farmed fish but also a glut of canned pink salmon in inventory. Buying out some of the 415 permit holders could result in better economics for those seiners who remain on the water, buyout supporters say.
• The law gets tough on nations with vessels known to engage in "illegal, unreported, or unregulated" fishing, to include denial of port privileges.
Daily News reporter Wesley Loy can be reached at wloy@adn.com or 257-4590.
