Coastal Conservation Association (CCA)

Christmas came just a little early this year for recreational fishermen.

The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee reported legislation this week that reauthorizes the nation's most important marine fisheries law, the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 2005. Of critical importance to anglers is a section inserted by Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison that provides guidelines for the establishment of no-fishing zones.

In recent years, no-fishing zones were used arbitrarily in some states to close stretches of ocean to all forms of fishing with no input from the public.

The guidelines inserted by Sen. Hutchison specify that the level of regulation should be appropriate to the conservation problem being addressed. They require that fishery closures managed under the act are based on the best scientific information available and also call for assessments of the benefits and impacts of the closure in relation to other management measures.

“Sen. Hutchison has always been a strong supporter of marine conservation in Texas and a true ally for all recreational anglers. Her tireless pursuit of this key piece of legislation is a testament to her dedication to sound fisheries management,” said Will Ohmstede, chairman of Coastal Conservation Association (CCA) Texas.

Toward the end of the Clinton Administration, no fishing zones, also known as marine reserves, were being touted as the way to manage marine resources. Some environmental groups were pushing the adoption of these areas in a manner that essentially circumvented the entire fishery management process, ignoring the significant impacts to recreational fishing in the process.

At the end of the 2000 Congress, Sen. Hutchison took up the cause for recreational fishermen and introduced the Freedom to Fish legislation, which set forth a series of guidelines and standards for the creation and duration of marine reserves. Since then, Sen. Hutchison has championed the concerns of recreational anglers and continued to support legislation that defined marine reserves not as a silver bullet, but as one possible tool to manage marine resources.

“Senator Hutchison deserves all the credit for this provision," said Ohmstede. “She stayed on course and was finally able to bridge the differences between conservationists, environmentalists and all interested parties to create legislation that will protect the Texas tradition of marine resource conservation that has served our fishery so well.”

The effort to include guidelines on marine reserves in the Magnuson-Stevens Act was sustained by lengthy dialogue among recreational and environmental groups to determine how, when and under what circumstances this new tool should be used.

“CCA and many other groups spent considerable time and energy discussing the use of marine reserves,” said Fred Miler, CCA Government Relations Committee chairman. “But it was Sen. Hutchison who insisted that there be guidelines for the establishment of these areas in any reauthorization of the Magnuson Stevens Act. Without her by our side for the past five years, recreational anglers across the nation would not have won this fight.”

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