SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
A Haddock caught in the nets of the trawling net in The North Atlantic. Nearly 1,000 fishermen, business leaders, scientists, and organizations fighting for the health of our oceans called on U.S. House lawmakers to reject H.R. 200. They did not listen. (Photo by Chris Furlong/Getty Images)
GOP-Controlled House Passes Bill to Eviscerate Nation's Marine Ecosystems, Fisheries
If the bill becomes law, it "would reverse decades of bipartisan progress towards preventing overfishing and rebuilding fish populations, harming the health of our marine ecosystems and the coastal communities who depend on them."
Jul 12, 2018
Conservations, scientists, and members of fishing communities and industry expressed outrage and disappointment after the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday that experts warn will set the nation's fishing industry back decades by eviscerating protections that have made U.S. fisheries more sustainable and undermining the health of marine ecosystems as well as the communities that live off the ocean.
With a final vote of 222 to 193, the bill known as H.R. 200--officially titled the Strengthening Fishing Communities and Increasing Flexibility in Fisheries Management Act--was passed along party lines, with just nine Democrats voting in favor and just 15 Republicans voting against. See the full rollcall vote here.
"Recovering depleted fisheries under H.R. 200 would be like fishing for sardines with a whale-sized hole in the net."
--Martin Hayden, EarthJustice
The problem with the legislation, say people like Martin Hayden, vice president for policy and legislation at Earthjustice, is that the bill does the very opposite of what its name suggests.
"Recovering depleted fisheries under H.R. 200 would be like fishing for sardines with a whale-sized hole in the net," Hayden warned. If the bill becomes law, he added, it "would reverse decades of bipartisan progress towards preventing overfishing and rebuilding fish populations, harming the health of our marine ecosystems and the coastal communities who depend on them."
The GOP-controlled House passed the bill despite letters (pdf) of opposition from over 500 U.S. businesses and individuals, including 14 restaurant and seafood companies, 12 aquariums, over 350 chefs, 200 scientists, over 50 dive shops, and multiple recreational fishing groups.
Rather than "strengthening" the existing law known as the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA), which governs much of the ways in which the nation's fisheries are managed, opponents warn that H.R. 200 is designed to gut the hard-won progress and marine life protections achieved by conservationists and fishing communities since the mid-1970s.
"In the last 40 years," said Whitney Webber, campaign director for the conservation group Oceana, following Wednesday's vote, "the Magnuson-Stevens Act has helped the United States become a global leader in fisheries management. Yet, with today's vote, Congress has allowed special interests to trump science, leaving future generations of fishermen, seafood consumers and ocean enthusiasts to pay the price."
The MSA, she added, "has succeeded in reversing overfishing and bringing back fisheries abundance in the U.S. However, H.R. 200 would undo the significant progress we've made over the past several decades for the health of America's fisheries and fishermen. This bill would weaken science-based conservation of U.S. fish populations, decrease accountability, and increase the risk of overfishing by removing annual catch limits for many species."
The bill now heads to the U.S. Senate for a vote.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Conservations, scientists, and members of fishing communities and industry expressed outrage and disappointment after the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday that experts warn will set the nation's fishing industry back decades by eviscerating protections that have made U.S. fisheries more sustainable and undermining the health of marine ecosystems as well as the communities that live off the ocean.
With a final vote of 222 to 193, the bill known as H.R. 200--officially titled the Strengthening Fishing Communities and Increasing Flexibility in Fisheries Management Act--was passed along party lines, with just nine Democrats voting in favor and just 15 Republicans voting against. See the full rollcall vote here.
"Recovering depleted fisheries under H.R. 200 would be like fishing for sardines with a whale-sized hole in the net."
--Martin Hayden, EarthJustice
The problem with the legislation, say people like Martin Hayden, vice president for policy and legislation at Earthjustice, is that the bill does the very opposite of what its name suggests.
"Recovering depleted fisheries under H.R. 200 would be like fishing for sardines with a whale-sized hole in the net," Hayden warned. If the bill becomes law, he added, it "would reverse decades of bipartisan progress towards preventing overfishing and rebuilding fish populations, harming the health of our marine ecosystems and the coastal communities who depend on them."
The GOP-controlled House passed the bill despite letters (pdf) of opposition from over 500 U.S. businesses and individuals, including 14 restaurant and seafood companies, 12 aquariums, over 350 chefs, 200 scientists, over 50 dive shops, and multiple recreational fishing groups.
Rather than "strengthening" the existing law known as the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA), which governs much of the ways in which the nation's fisheries are managed, opponents warn that H.R. 200 is designed to gut the hard-won progress and marine life protections achieved by conservationists and fishing communities since the mid-1970s.
"In the last 40 years," said Whitney Webber, campaign director for the conservation group Oceana, following Wednesday's vote, "the Magnuson-Stevens Act has helped the United States become a global leader in fisheries management. Yet, with today's vote, Congress has allowed special interests to trump science, leaving future generations of fishermen, seafood consumers and ocean enthusiasts to pay the price."
The MSA, she added, "has succeeded in reversing overfishing and bringing back fisheries abundance in the U.S. However, H.R. 200 would undo the significant progress we've made over the past several decades for the health of America's fisheries and fishermen. This bill would weaken science-based conservation of U.S. fish populations, decrease accountability, and increase the risk of overfishing by removing annual catch limits for many species."
The bill now heads to the U.S. Senate for a vote.
Conservations, scientists, and members of fishing communities and industry expressed outrage and disappointment after the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday that experts warn will set the nation's fishing industry back decades by eviscerating protections that have made U.S. fisheries more sustainable and undermining the health of marine ecosystems as well as the communities that live off the ocean.
With a final vote of 222 to 193, the bill known as H.R. 200--officially titled the Strengthening Fishing Communities and Increasing Flexibility in Fisheries Management Act--was passed along party lines, with just nine Democrats voting in favor and just 15 Republicans voting against. See the full rollcall vote here.
"Recovering depleted fisheries under H.R. 200 would be like fishing for sardines with a whale-sized hole in the net."
--Martin Hayden, EarthJustice
The problem with the legislation, say people like Martin Hayden, vice president for policy and legislation at Earthjustice, is that the bill does the very opposite of what its name suggests.
"Recovering depleted fisheries under H.R. 200 would be like fishing for sardines with a whale-sized hole in the net," Hayden warned. If the bill becomes law, he added, it "would reverse decades of bipartisan progress towards preventing overfishing and rebuilding fish populations, harming the health of our marine ecosystems and the coastal communities who depend on them."
The GOP-controlled House passed the bill despite letters (pdf) of opposition from over 500 U.S. businesses and individuals, including 14 restaurant and seafood companies, 12 aquariums, over 350 chefs, 200 scientists, over 50 dive shops, and multiple recreational fishing groups.
Rather than "strengthening" the existing law known as the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA), which governs much of the ways in which the nation's fisheries are managed, opponents warn that H.R. 200 is designed to gut the hard-won progress and marine life protections achieved by conservationists and fishing communities since the mid-1970s.
"In the last 40 years," said Whitney Webber, campaign director for the conservation group Oceana, following Wednesday's vote, "the Magnuson-Stevens Act has helped the United States become a global leader in fisheries management. Yet, with today's vote, Congress has allowed special interests to trump science, leaving future generations of fishermen, seafood consumers and ocean enthusiasts to pay the price."
The MSA, she added, "has succeeded in reversing overfishing and bringing back fisheries abundance in the U.S. However, H.R. 200 would undo the significant progress we've made over the past several decades for the health of America's fisheries and fishermen. This bill would weaken science-based conservation of U.S. fish populations, decrease accountability, and increase the risk of overfishing by removing annual catch limits for many species."
The bill now heads to the U.S. Senate for a vote.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.