92 



Sport Fishing Institute 



2010 Massachusetts Avt.. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20001 (202) 89B-0770. Fax (202) 371-2085 



June 4, 1993 



Thomas J. Manton 



Chairman 



Subcommittee on Fisheries Management 



1334 Longworth House Office Building 



Washington, D.C 20515-6230 



Dear Mr. Manton: 



I appreciate the opportunity to testify before the 

 Subcommittee on Fisheries Management during the hearing on H.R. 

 2134. The continued growth and vitality of the sport fishing 

 industry is dependent on healthy and well managed fish stoclcs, and 

 passage of H.R. 2134 will facilitate these better management 

 programs . 



In your letter of May 19th, you requested that I respond to 

 two questions which arose from the hearing. My responses are 

 addressed separately below. 



1. H.R. 2134 vould vest the Comaissiea witb vast new 

 authority. Was any thought given to vesting this authority in the 

 Councils established under the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and 

 Management Act? 



While H.R. 2134 does not vest any new regulatory authority in 

 the commission, it does provide the states, acting through the 

 Commission, with an enforcement mechanism for jointly developed 

 management plans. The states have been developing recommended 

 joint management measures since the forming of the Commission 50 

 years ago. This legislation would simply ensure that the states 

 implement these measures in order to ensure well managed and 

 healthy stocks of fish. 



This identical mechanism was embodied in the tremendously 

 successful Atlantic Striped Bass Conservation Act. Passage of this 

 act had almost immediate results. A mere seven years after the Act 

 was implemented, we are now seeing striped bass populations rebound 

 to levels that have not been seen for almost two decades. Although 

 the striped bass recovery process continues, we are hopeful that 

 they will soon recover to a level which will sustain a vibrant 

 recreational fishing industry. Upon enactment of H.R. 2134, we 

 anticipate that similar results will be realized with other 

 Interjurisdictional species, assuming that the states are committed 

 to developinq meaningful fishery management plans. 



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