Modern Fish Act

In December 2018, Congress enacted the Modernizing Recreational Fisheries Management Act of 2018 (Modern Fish Act).

This law recognizes that recreational and commercial fishing are fundamentally different endeavors and should be managed accordingly and adds more appropriate management tools for policymakers to use in managing federal recreational fisheries.

This progress report considers how the federal government is implementing major milestones of the Modern Fish Act in terms of timeliness (on schedule), stakeholder input (the inclusion of state partners and recreational, commercial and environmental stakeholders), and substance (thoroughness and in accordance with the statute). 

Work is on track and satisfactory.

Work is meeting expectations in part but needs more attention or is incomplete.

Work is not yet meeting expectations.

Section 101

GAO Study on Allocation Review

How do the South Atlantic and Gulf Councils determine how to divide the “fisheries pie” between the recreational and commercial sectors?

Requiring the Comptroller General of the United States to conduct a study on the process of mixed-use fishery allocation review by the South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico Regional Fishery Management Councils and report findings to Congress within one year of enactment of the Modern Fish Act (December 2019).

Mixed-use fisheries are those fished by both the commercial and recreational sectors.

Status

The Comptroller General is the director of the Government Accountability Office (GAO), an independent, nonpartisan agency charged with helping the government save money and work more efficiently. In 2019, GAO made two recommendations: 1) NOAA Fisheries should work with the South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico councils to develop documented processes for conducting allocation reviews, and 2) specify how they will document their allocation reviews, including the basis for their decisions, whether fishery management plan objectives are being met, and what factors were considered in the reviews.

It has been four years since the Act passed and nearly three years since GAO’s report to Congress. NOAA Fisheries has made incremental progress implementing the GAO recommendations in mixed fisheries. NOAA’s recent actions include providing allocation materials to the Council Coordination Committee in October 2022 and assisting the South Atlantic Council in creating an Allocation Decision Tree—both positive steps.

To remain at Green, it is reasonable to see:

  • The use of the SAFMC Allocation Decision Tree.
  • NOAA encourage other councils to consider using a similar decision tree approach to allocations.
  • Councils consider how to achieve optimum yield (OY) in recreational fisheries in management decisions including allocation.
  • Direction provided to councils to update allocation percentages to reflect the conversion to MRIP Fishing Effort Survey data from MRIP Coastal Household Telephone Survey data (or whichever data is considered Best Scientific Information Available for assessment and management).

Section 102

Implementation of Alternative Management Measures

How is NOAA Fisheries working to implement additional management tools more appropriate for recreational fishing, such as extraction rates, fishing mortality targets and harvest control rules?

Authorizing regional fishery management councils to use additional management tools more appropriate for recreational fishing, many of which are successfully implemented by state fisheries agencies (e.g., extraction rates, fishing mortality targets, harvest control rules, or traditional or cultural practices of native communities). Click here for more information on alternative management.

Not later than 180 days after the enactment of the Modern Fish Act (June 2019), the Secretary of Commerce shall submit to the appropriate committees of Congress a report that describes any actions taken pursuant to this section.

Status

NOAA Fisheries invited the recreational fishing community to speak to the regional councils in November 2019 on the need for alternative management measures. The outcome was a working group of the South Atlantic and Gulf Councils on alternative management, first assembled in May 2020 and concluded October 2022. While council members seemed committed to finding better ways to manage recreational fisheries, the outcome of the workgroup resulted in little progress towards true alternative management. However, the workgroup did highlight the need to reconsider how optimal yield is defined in many recreational fisheries and to re-evaluate National Standard 1, both of which could lead to more efficient management of the recreational sector in the future.

NOAA’s March 2020 report to Congress on Section 102 contained few examples of true alternative management measures that more effectively manage the recreational sector, though the Mid-Atlantic Council has been making some progress.

The Mid-Atlantic is expected to implement a harvest control rule in 2023 that works to address the limitations of MRIP data by evaluating other scientific metrics (e.g., stock status) when determining the direction and magnitude of a management change. Furthermore, NOAA released a technical memorandum in October 2022 that discusses rate-based ACLs for data-limited stocks. However, it remains unclear as to when or how this guidance will be implemented in fisheries management.

To move to Green, it is reasonable to see:

  • NOAA use a similar collaborative stakeholder model across the other regions to advance alternative recreational management for additional fisheries.
  • NOAA review and consider revisiting the National Standard 1 guidelines to better align them to address the modern needs of management for all sectors, in line with the recommendation from the Joint Council Workgroup on Section 102 of MFA.
  • NOAA should provide additional technical guidance and/or identification of other tools and applicable data for use of annual criteria for achieving long-term yields for Maximum Sustainable Yield and OY, as required in the Magnuson-Stevens Act.
  • Councils consider how to achieve OY in recreational fisheries in management decisions including allocation.

Section 103

Study of Limited Access Privilege Programs for Mixed-Use Fisheries

What are the real social, economic, and ecological effects of Limited Access Privilege Programs, also called catch shares?

Requiring the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to complete a study on the impacts of Limited Access Privilege Programs (LAPPs) and provide recommendations within two years of the enactment of the Modern Fish Act (December 2020). Although statutorily a “privilege,” LAPPs have functionally assigned private ownership of public fishery resources to individual commercial fishermen for their exclusive use.

The Modern Fish Act requires an assessment of the social, economic, and ecological effects of LAPPs considering each sector of a mixed-use fishery and related businesses, coastal communities, and the environment and any impacts to stakeholders in a mixed-use fishery caused by these programs. This study excludes the Pacific and North Pacific Regional Fishery Management Councils.

Status

NOAA Fisheries contracted with the National Academy of Sciences to conduct this study. NAS delivered the study in the summer of 2021. The executive summary states, “substantial data shortages limit the committee’s ability to robustly exclude the potential for some negative social and community effects … The ultimate outcomes of LAPPs and the larger program thus require, and depend on, trade-offs. The efforts of the Councils and the NMFS to make such trade-offs would be enhanced by major improvements in the information available to them about economic and social matters.”

Similar to the GAO report on allocation decisions, this report again highlighted the need for NOAA Fisheries to invest in the development of a process to collect statistically sound social and economic data for the recreational sector on a reoccurring basis, which is currently lacking. NOAA will host a workshop on socio-economic fishery issues in 2023 to make further progress.

To move to Green, it is reasonable to see:

  • NOAA develop, perhaps through assistance from the NAS, the data and information needed to assess impacts of LAPPs on the recreational fishing sector.
  • A concrete plan for next steps from the socio-economic workshop that results in improved quantitative data for the recreational fishing sector.

Section 201

Improving Federal-State Cooperative Data Collection

What is NOAA Fisheries doing to incorporate more state-collected data to improve accuracy and timeliness in managing recreational anglers?

Improving recreational harvest data collection by requiring federal managers to explore other data sources that have tremendous potential to improve the accuracy and timeliness of harvest estimates, such as state-driven programs and electronic reporting (e.g., through smartphone apps).

Not later than one year after the enactment of the Modern Fish Act (December 2019), the Secretary of Commerce shall develop, in consultation with the science and statistical committees of the regional councils and the Marine Fisheries Commissions and submit to the Senate Commerce Committee and the House Natural Resources Committee a report on facilitating greater incorporation of data, analysis, stock assessments, and surveys from state agencies and nongovernmental sources.

Status

The final report to Congress did not address the main charge of the Modern Fish Act: how can the Secretary facilitate greater incorporation of state data into broader management, i.e. stock assessments. The final report takes comments from the recreational fishing community into consideration on matters such as how to consider external data in fisheries management; however, many of NOAA Fisheries’ recommendations are advisory, lack substance, and simply restate what the Agency is already doing.

Despite direction from Congress as early as December 2020 for the Agency to resolve the discrepancies between MRIP and the timelier state data collection programs prior to moving forward with any red snapper recalibration in the Gulf of Mexico, NOAA Fisheries announced a final rule to calibrate data collected by the Gulf States to MRIP on December 1, 2022. MRIP remains demonstrably incapable of providing the precision and accuracy needed for in-season management, which leads to faulty management actions.

While we have scored this at red, the Agency points to several actions that they assert justify elevating to yellow, such as:

  • A transition plan for incorporating Gulf state data into federal management in 5 – 6 years;
  • Support for the Great Red Snapper Count, and
  • Funding support for state data collection.
  • To move to yellow, it is reasonable to see:
  • Meaningful incorporation of Great Red Snapper Count results into the Gulf red snapper research track and operational assessments (and use Atlantic Red Snapper Count results in the upcoming Atlantic assessment).
  • NOAA work proactively with states, councils, and other entities involved in the federal fisheries management process to encourage and facilitate the development and use of state data in federal assessment and management.
  • NOAA expediting the work of the Gulf MRIP Transition Team to achieve the goals of the Transition Plan by 2025.
  • NOAA develop, perhaps through assistance from the NAS, the data and information needed to assess impacts of LAPPs on the recreational fishing sector.
  • A concrete plan for next steps from the socio-economic workshop that results in improved quantitative data for the recreational fishing sector.

Section 202

Improving Recreational Data Collection

Within 90 days of the enactment of the Modern Fish Act (March 2019), enter into an agreement with the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to evaluate, in the form of a report, how the design of the Marine Recreational Information Program (MRIP) can be improved to better meet the needs of in-season management of annual catch limits and what actions the Secretary, regional councils, and States could take to improve the accuracy and timeliness of recreational data collection and analysis. MRIP is the NOAA Fisheries program used to collect and report data on marine recreational anglers’ participation and catch.

Within six months after receiving the report, submit to Congress recommendations regarding changes to be made to MRIP to make the program better meet the needs of in-season management of annual catch limits and other requirements under such section and alternative management approaches that could be applied to recreational fisheries for which MRIP is not meeting the needs of in-season management of annual catch limits.

Status

The NAS found substantial room for improvement stating, “MRIP and the data collections conducted by its federal contractors and regional and state partners were not designed for the purposes of in-season management of recreational fisheries with ACLs.” NAS concluded NOAA Fisheries should: supplement MRIP data with other survey data to improve accuracy, timeliness and transparency; incorporate state and electronic data; add more statistical methods; work with states to test alternative management approaches; resolve significant data differences between MRIP and other surveys; clearly communicate to anglers and other interested parties; better coordinate with regional fisheries commissions, and start a process to engage anglers on meeting anglers’ cultural, economic, and conservation goals.

NAS made several of these same recommendations to NOAA in 2017, and since then has concluded that “[w]hile NOAA Fisheries has made improvements to the MRIP program since 2017, questions remain regarding outstanding challenges limiting the extent to which current survey methods in each region meet the needs of the defined in-season management of recreational fisheries with ACLs.”

NOAA Fisheries has not submitted to Congress recommendations for changes to MRIP to better meet the needs of in-season management and alternative management approaches for recreational fisheries. Although these recommendations are nearly a year overdue, we look forward to reviewing the Agency’s plan for improving MRIP and suggestions for alternative recreational fisheries management approaches.

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