Fishery Management: Problems Remain With National Marine Fisheries Service's Implementation of the Magnuson-Stevens Act
RCED-00-69
Published: Apr 06, 2000. Publicly Released: Apr 06, 2000.
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Highlights
Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided information on the National Marine Fisheries Service's (NMFS) compliance with three provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, focusing on the requirements for NMFS to: (1) use the best available scientific information for fishery management; (2) take into account the economic importance of fishery resources to fishing communities as it adopts measures to manage fishery resources; and (3) identify essential fish habitat, the adverse impacts on that habitat, and the actions needed to conserve and enhance that habitat and also develop a consultation process designed to protect that habitat from adverse impacts.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Commerce | To improve the data upon which fishery conservation and management decisions are based and to improve the communications between the regulators and those who are regulated, the Secretary of Commerce should direct the Director of NMFS to increase the involvement of the fishing industry, its expertise, and its vessels in fishery research activities in order to expand the frequency and scope of NMFS' data collection efforts. |
Closed – Implemented
NMFS officials said that NMFS benefits tremendously by partnering with the recreational and commercial fishing industry to support the science underlying fishery management. In this regard, they spent nearly $13 million on cooperative research in fiscal year 2003, and will spend over $19 million in fiscal year 2004. Specific research projects include surveys using industry vessels, gear modifications studies, tagging/stock structure studies, cooperative statistics data collection, habitat studies, and studies of selected species groups. These projects, an integral part of NMFS overall data collection efforts, provide a vital communication link with the industry.
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| Department of Commerce | To improve the data upon which fishery conservation and management decisions are based and to improve the communications between the regulators and those who are regulated, the Secretary of Commerce should direct the Director of NMFS to review data collection requirements placed on fishermen to limit requested information to what is needed for conservation and management, regulatory, and scientific purposes. |
Closed – Implemented
The review of data collection requirements is an ongoing process within NOAA. The Paperwork Reduction Act requires that each approved data collection be periodically reviewed, generally every 3 years. This involves considering the need for and usefulness of the data, analyzing the burden placed on the industry, and considering alternative methods of collection. The Magnuson-Stevens Act also requires that data collection needs to be reviewed. In complying with the Paperwork Reduction Act and Magnuson-Stevens Act requirements, NOAA satisfied the intent of this recommendation.
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| Department of Commerce | To improve the data upon which fishery conservation and management decisions are based and to improve the communications between the regulators and those who are regulated, the Secretary of Commerce should direct the Director of NMFS to review data collection procedures for fisheries where the recreational sector constitutes a major portion of the fish caught to minimize the inconsistent treatment of commercial and recreational fishermen. |
Closed – Implemented
In the Spring of 2001, NMFS reviewed its major data collection procedures for the recreational sector in preparing the OMB renewal package for the Marine Recreational Fishery Statistics Survey. No unwarranted differential treatment of recreational versus commercial fishermen was identified. Significant differences in scale of respondent population and choice of management control warrant some differential treatments.
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| Department of Commerce | To improve the acceptance of conservation and management decisions and to minimize the adverse economic impacts of those decisions to fishing communities, the Secretary of Commerce should direct the Director of NMFS to determine what resources NMFS might redirect to help ensure that the full range of economic alternatives are considered early enough in the decisionmaking process to be useful in minimizing the adverse economic impacts of fishery conservation and management decisions. |
Closed – Implemented
NMFS has conducted a needs assessment and is slowly making progress in redirecting resources to ensure full consideration of economic alternatives in fishery management decisions. For example, in fiscal year 2002, NMFS added $500,000 to augment its $3 million social science program, approved hiring six FTEs for its Fisheries' Science Centers, and a chief social scientist at its headquarters Office of Science and Technology. These additional staff and funds are used to analyze and review the impacts of proposed management alternatives on the fishing industry and associated communities. Program funding remained at $3.5 million in fiscal year 2003, and will increase to $4.2 million in fiscal year 2004. In addition, the Office of Science and Technology is restructuring to include a Division of Economic and Social Analysis, which will elevate the visibility of the agency's social science program.
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| Department of Commerce | To more accurately assess the impacts of essential fish habitat provisions on the nation's fisheries and NMFS' budget, the Secretary of Commerce should direct the Director of NMFS to provide Congress with information on the costs of: (1) identifying habitats that contribute most directly to fishery production; (2) identifying priority threats to essential fish habitat; and (3) habitat from priority fishing and nonfishing threats. The above cost estimates should be compared with estimates of the cost for all species without first establishing priorities. |
Closed – Implemented
In fiscal year 2001, NMFS estimated that it needed an additional $16 million to identify habitats, $14 million to identify priority threats, and $5 million to identify techniques and methods. This $35 million would be phased in over 5 fiscal years beginning with $7 million in 2004, and continuing through 2007.
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