The Magnuson–Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act is the primary law that governs marine fisheries management in U.S. federal waters. First passed in 1976, the MSA fosters the long-term biological and economic sustainability of marine fisheries. Its objectives include:
Under the MSA, U.S. fisheries management is a transparent and public process of science, management, innovation, and collaboration with the fishing industry.
Prior to 1976, international waters began at just 12 miles from shore and were fished by unregulated foreign fleets. The MSA extended U.S. jurisdiction to 200 nautical miles and established eight regional fishery management councils with representation from the coastal states and fishery stakeholders. The councils develop fishery management plans that comply with the MSA's conservation and management requirements, including 10 national standards to promote sustainable fisheries management.
Congress has made two significant revisions to the MSA:
The Sustainable Fisheries Act of 1996 enacted numerous science, management, and conservation mandates. It recognized the importance of healthy habitat for commercial and recreational fisheries. Fish and other marine species depend on their habitat to survive and reproduce.
The MSA Reauthorization Act of 2007 further refined and strengthened fisheries science, management, and conservation.
Under the MSA, we are ending overfishing and rebuilding stocks, which strengthens the value of fisheries to our economy and marine ecosystems.
The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act of 2007 amended the High Seas Driftnet Fishing Moratorium Protection Act. The Reauthorization Act directs the United States to strengthen international fisheries management organizations. It also directs the United States to address illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing and bycatch of protected living marine resources.
The Moratorium Protection Act was further amended in 2011 by the Shark Conservation Act to improve the conservation of sharks domestically and internationally.
The Moratorium Protection Act requires NOAA Fisheries to produce a biennial Report to Congress that lists nations the United States has identified for IUU fishing, bycatch of protected species, or shark catches on the high seas for nations that do not have regulatory measures comparable to the United States.
Once a nation is identified, NOAA Fisheries enters a 2-year consultation process to encourage that nation to take necessary measures to address the issue for which it was identified. Following these consultations, we determine whether to negatively or positively certify the identified nation in the next Report to Congress.
A positive certification is issued if the nation has provided evidence of actions that address the activities for which it was identified. A negative certification may result in denial of U.S. port access for fishing vessels of that nation, and potential import restrictions on fish or fish products.
On December 31, 2018, the Magnuson – Stevens Act was amended by the Modernizing Recreational Fisheries Management Act. The Modern Fish Act focuses on improvements to recreational fishing data and management of mixed-use fisheries. The law includes requirements for new reports, studies, and guidance related to fisheries management and science.
The purpose of the Endangered Species Act is to conserve endangered and threatened species and their ecosystems. Congress passed the ESA in 1973, recognizing that the natural heritage of the United States was of “esthetic, ecological, educational, recreational, and scientific value to our nation and its people.” It was understood that, without protection, many of our nation’s native plants and animals would become extinct.
"Nothing is more priceless and more worthy of preservation than the rich array of animal life with which our country has been blessed." – President Nixon, upon signing the Endangered Species Act
NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service share responsibility for implementing the ESA. NOAA Fisheries is responsible for most marine and anadromous species. U.S. FWS is responsible for terrestrial and freshwater species. They are also responsible for several marine mammal species like walrus, sea otters, manatees, and polar bears. The two agencies share jurisdiction over several other species, such as sea turtles, Gulf Sturgeon, and Atlantic salmon.
Under the ESA, the federal government has the responsibility to conserve endangered and threatened species and their critical habitats.
Endangered species are in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of their range. Threatened species are likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of their range.
Critical habitats are specific areas:
Major provisions of the ESA include the following:
We have issued regulations, national policies, and guidance to promote efficiency and consistency in implementing the ESA to conserve and recover listed marine species.
Congress passed the Marine Mammal Protection Act in 1972 in response to increasing concerns among scientists and the public that significant declines in some species of marine mammals were caused by human activities. The MMPA established a national policy to prevent marine mammal species and population stocks from declining beyond the point where they ceased to be significant functioning elements of the ecosystems of which they are a part. This was the first legislation to mandate an ecosystem-based approach to marine resource management.
Three federal entities share responsibility for implementing the MMPA:
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, a part of the Department of Agriculture, is responsible for regulations managing marine mammals at public display facilities (i.e., aquaria and zoos) under the Animal Welfare Act.
All marine mammals are protected under the MMPA. Some are also protected under the Endangered Species Act and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
The MMPA was an innovative piece of legislation for the early 1970s. In addition to shifting the focus of conservation from species to ecosystems, the MMPA contains other features never before established in legislation. The MMPA:
The MMPA was amended in 1992 to include Title IV, the Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program. Title IV mandates emergency responses to marine mammals in distress, monitoring health and health trends in marine mammal populations, and investigating marine mammal unusual mortality events.
Title IV was subsequently amended in 2000 to include the John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance Grant Program, which provides grants or cooperative agreements to eligible stranding network participants for:
The MMPA was substantially amended in 1994 to provide:
To protect all marine mammals, the MMPA prohibits the "taking" of any marine mammal species in U.S. waters where "take" means to hunt, harass, capture, or kill any marine mammal or attempting to do so. It also prohibits the import and export of marine mammals and their parts or products.
Exceptions to these prohibitions include:
In addition to managing the taking of marine mammals, NOAA Fisheries also performs the following conservation and management actions:
Co-management involves collaboration between the federal government and Alaska Native Organizations to conserve marine mammal populations in Alaska.
Co-management efforts have integrated the field skills and traditional/indigenous knowledge of Alaska Native hunters with the scientific and technological expertise of agency scientists. This integration enhances understanding of marine mammals including their stock structure, status, trends, movement and habitat-use patterns, responses to climate change, animal health and condition, contaminants, and disease. Sampling of Native-harvested animals for scientific purposes (e.g., biosampling) has provided tissues for a variety of studies. Education and outreach efforts have trained hunters in good hunting practices and biosampling and familiarized Alaska Native youth with cultural and subsistence traditions. Such efforts contribute significantly to marine mammal conservation and the maintenance of subsistence cultures.
Find Memoranda of Agreement between NOAA Fisheries, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Geological Survey, and the Indigenous People's Council for Marine Mammals that provide direction for developing MMPA Section 119 agreements to promote the sustained health of marine mammal species:
We have issued regulations, national policies, and guidance to promote efficiency and consistency in implementing the MMPA to conserve and recover marine mammal species.
The National Environmental Policy Act, enacted in 1969, requires federal agencies to integrate environmental values into their decision-making processes by considering the environmental impacts of their major proposed actions. Its primary goal is to foster better decision making that takes into account all of the environmental impacts of an action and involves the public in that decision making.
The range of actions covered by NEPA is broad and includes:
When NOAA Fisheries undertakes a federal action, the first thing we have to do is decide if the action is subject to NEPA environmental review. A federal action is an activity, such as a plan, project or program, which may be funded, regulated, conducted, or approved by a federal agency. If the action is subject to NEPA review, then we must document the environmental impacts at one of three levels of NEPA analysis by preparing a:
We also provide information for use in NEPA documents prepared by other federal agencies. When another federal agency comes to us to obtain a permit or authorization, we review and provide comments on these documents. Once they are complete, we can adopt them as our own analysis for our permitting or authorization action. Through this process, we seek to ensure that impacts to marine wildlife resources are adequately described and that needed mitigation is provided.
We are responsible for implementing and enforcing more than 40 laws and policies to protect living marine resources. These include laws to deal with illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing; illegally trading fish and wildlife; and even the National Marine Sanctuaries Act, which designates and protects areas of the marine environment with special national significance.
Signed into law in 1998, the purpose of the act was to tighten U.S. ownership standards that had been exploited under the Anti-Reflagging Act, and to provide the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands pollock fleet the opportunity to conduct their fishery in a more rational manner while protecting non-AFA participants in other fisheries. The AFA established sector allocations in the BSAI pollock fishery, determined eligible vessels and processors, allowed the formation of cooperatives, set limits on the participation of AFA vessels in other fisheries, and imposed special catch weighing and monitoring requirements on AFA vessels.
The Animal Welfare Act ensures humane care and treatment for certain animals that are exhibited to the public, bred for commercial sale, used in medical research, or transported commercially. Marine mammals on public display at aquariums fall under this act.
Facilities using regulated animals for regulated purposes must provide their animals with adequate housing, sanitation, nutrition, water and veterinary care, and they must protect their animals from extreme weather and temperatures. U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal Care is the unit within the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service that upholds and enforces the act.
The Antarctic Marine Living Resources Convention Act of 1984 provides the legislative authority to establish the U.S. AMLR Program, implementing the United States’ strategic goal of managing Southern Ocean resources using an ecosystem approach.
The program (working with the U.S. Department of State) supports U.S. participation in the Commission and Scientific Committee for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, and conducts directed research toward achieving the conservation objectives of the Convention.
The Antiquities Act of 1906 gives the President of the United States the authority to create national monuments from federal lands to protect significant natural, cultural, or scientific features. There are five Marine National Monuments in U.S. waters, including four in the Pacific Ocean and one in the Atlantic Ocean.
The Atlantic Tunas Convention Act of 1975 authorizes the Secretary of Commerce to administer and enforce all provisions of the International Convention for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas to which the United States is a party. ICCAT conducts stock assessments on species of Atlantic tunas, swordfish, and billfish. Based on these stock assessments, member nations negotiate quotas and other management recommendations for these species. Ideally, the management recommendations rebuild overfished stocks and allow for sustainable fishing of these species across the Atlantic Ocean, including the Mediterranean Sea, the Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico.
The National Aquaculture Act of 1980 is a U.S. federal law that is intended to promote and support the development of aquaculture. The act aims to encourage development of aquaculture in the United States because aquaculture has the potential to reduce the U.S. trade deficit in fisheries products, augment existing commercial and recreational fisheries, and produce other renewable resources.
In passing the Billfish Conservation Act, Congress recognized the conservation challenges facing billfish populations in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Section 4(a) of the act prohibits any person from offering billfish or billfish products for sale, selling them, or having custody, control, or possession of them for purposes of offering them for sale.
The Coastal Zone Management Act provides for the preservation, protection, development, restoration, and enhancement of our nation’s coastal zone resources for current and future generations. Under the act, there is a state-federal consistency provision that requires federal actions undertaken by federal agencies be consistent with enforceable policies of approved state management plans.
The Federal Power Act requires non-federal hydropower facility owners to obtain a license from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission before operating their project. The act authorizes NOAA Fisheries to issue mandatory conditions for fish passage and to recommend other protection, mitigation, and enhancement measures for fish that migrate between freshwater and saltwater—such as salmon, shad, steelhead, river herring, eel, and sturgeon—and their habitat. Many of these species are listed as threatened or endangered and have critical habitat designated under the Endangered Species Act, or are managed fisheries under the Magnuson-Stevens Act.
The Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act requires that all federal agencies consult with NOAA Fisheries, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and state wildlife agencies when proposed actions might result in modification of a natural stream or body of water. Federal agencies must consider effects that these projects would have on fish and wildlife development and provide for improvement of these resources.
Under this act, we provide comments to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during review of projects under section 404 of the Clean Water Act (concerning the discharge of dredged materials into navigable waters) and section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899 (obstructions in navigable waterways). Our comments aim to reduce environmental impacts to migratory, estuarine, and marine fisheries and their habitats.
The Fur Seal Act prohibits the taking of North Pacific fur seals, except by Alaska natives for subsistence purposes or by permit from NOAA Fisheries.
The High Seas Fishing Compliance Act requires that all commercial fishing vessels registered in the United States have a permit to fish on the high seas. The high seas are those waters extending beyond the exclusive economic zone, or seaward of 200 miles. Those holding this permit must comply with international living marine resource agreements, including any measure implementing such agreements. Permit holders are required to record all fishing efforts on the high seas.
The Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing Enforcement Act was passed in 2015 to combat IUU fishing and seafood fraud internationally. IUU fishing undermines both the economic and environmental sustainability of our nation’s fisheries. Combating IUU fishing and seafood fraud is critical to sustaining the resilience of our global ocean fisheries, to leveling the playing field for the U.S. fishing and seafood industries, and to protecting the United States’ reputation as a leader in sustainable seafood.
The legislation includes several provisions designed to prevent illegally harvested fish from entering the United States and supports efforts to achieve sustainable fisheries around the world, including the Port State Measures Agreement. This agreement aims to prevent vessels carrying fish caught illegally from entering U.S. ports and keeping illegal product out of our markets.
Together, the IUU Fishing Enforcement Act and the Port State Measures Agreement protect domestic fishermen from unfair competition and ensure consumer confidence in the seafood supply chain.
The Lacey Act, passed in 1900 as the first federal law protecting wildlife, was originally created to protect game and wild birds by making it a federal crime to poach game in one state with the purpose of selling the animal in another state. Today, the act reinforces other federal, state, and foreign wildlife protection laws by making it an offense to take, possess, transport, or sell wildlife that has been taken in violation of any law. The act also prohibits the falsification of documents for most shipments of wildlife (a criminal penalty) and makes the failure to properly mark wildlife shipments an offense (civil penalty).
The Lacey Act has been amended several times since its inception in 1900. The most significant amendments were those of 1969, 1981, and 1988. Among other changes, the 1969 amendments expanded the act to include amphibians, reptiles, mollusks, and crustaceans. As it relates to NOAA Fisheries, the 1981 amendments expanded the scope of the act in response to an increase in the illegal trade of fish and wildlife, both domestically and internationally. Additionally, new language was adapted, and the penalties for civil and criminal violations were increased.
The Lacey Act is considered one of the broadest and most comprehensive federal laws that conservation enforcement personnel can employ to protect wildlife.
The Migratory Bird Treaty Act makes it illegal to take, possess, import, export, transport, sell, purchase, barter, or offer for sale, purchase, or barter, any migratory bird, or the parts (feathers), nests, or eggs of such a bird except under the terms of a valid federal permit. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issues permits for otherwise prohibited activities under the act.
The National Invasive Species Act is a U.S. federal law intended to prevent invasive species from entering inland waters through ballast water carried by ships. This act reauthorized and amended a previous measure, the Non-Indigenous Aquatic Nuisance Prevention and Control Act of 1990.
The primary objective of the National Marine Sanctuaries Act is to protect marine resources, such as coral reefs, sunken historical vessels, or unique habitats. The act authorizes the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to designate and protect areas of the marine environment with special national significance due to their conservation, recreational, ecological, historical, scientific, cultural, archeological, educational or esthetic qualities as national marine sanctuaries.
The National Marine Sanctuary System includes 13 national marine sanctuaries and five marine national monuments. NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement is responsible for the compliance with and enforcement of sanctuary regulations.
The Northern Pacific Halibut Act is the implementing legislation for the Convention between the United States and Canada for the Preservation of the Halibut Fishery of the Northern Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea. The act was created to conserve, manage, and rebuild the halibut stocks in the Convention Area to those levels that would achieve and maintain the maximum sustainable yield from the fishery.
It authorizes the U.S. Secretary of State, with the concurrence of the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, to accept or reject on behalf of the United States the halibut fishery regulations and management recommendations developed by the International Pacific Halibut Commission. The act also authorizes the North Pacific Fishery Management Council and the Pacific Fishery Management Council to develop, and the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to implement, additional halibut fishery regulations governing the U.S. portion of Convention waters.
In response to the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the U.S. Congress passed the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. The act amended the Clean Water Act and addresses issues associated with preventing, responding to, and paying for oil pollution. Responsible parties are made accountable for the clean up costs. Parties that spill/discharge oil into the environment must also respond to impacted wildlife. In addition, responsible parties are required to have an Oil Spill Response Plan developed in consultation with NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The Shark Conservation Act allows for sustainably managed shark fisheries while eliminating the harmful practice of finning—a process of removing shark fins at sea and discarding the rest of the shark. The act requires that all sharks in the United States, with one exception, be brought to shore with their fins naturally attached.
The Whaling Convention Act implements the United States’ obligations under the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, which provides for the conservation of whale stocks and the management of whaling. Among other things, the act prohibits whaling in violation of the Convention. And under the act, we co-manage subsistence whale hunts regulated by the International Whaling Commission.
