Fishing Economy Improvement Act

Fishing Economy Improvement Act

This bill revises and reauthorizes through FY2021 the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA).

In managing highly migratory species that frequent the exclusive economic zone adjoining U.S. territories, the Department of Commerce must ensure participation of the territories.

If funds in the Western Pacific Sustainable Fisheries Fund are attributable to a particular U.S. territory, they must be sent to the territory instead of the Western Pacific Council.

Fishery management plans must include descriptions of subsistence or small scale traditional fishing.

The bill makes permanent the authority of Washington, Oregon, and California to adopt and enforce state laws governing fishing and processing in the exclusive economic zone adjacent to their state in any Dungeness crab (Cancer magister) fishery for which there is no fishery management plan in effect under the MSA.

The bill provides for the use of electronic monitoring of fisheries and public participation in the fishery management process by requiring certain meetings be broadcasted online.

Commerce must publish a plan within a year for implementing and conducting the cooperative research and management program.

The Fisheries Conservation and Management Fund is renamed the Zeke Grader Fisheries Conservation and Management Fund.

Commerce must: (1) implement a real-time reporting and data collection program for the Gulf of Mexico red snapper fishery using available technology, and (2) develop a schedule of stock surveys and stock assessments for the Gulf of Mexico Region and the South Atlantic Region for the next five years and every 5-year period thereafter.

Commerce must: (1) establish partnerships with states to develop best practices for implementing state programs that collect data on recreational fisheries, and (2) provide grants to states to improve implementation of those programs.

Commerce may make grants to support programs that address certain needs of fishing communities.

Commerce is given 90 days to determine if a fishery resource disaster exists for fisheries that originate within the Central Valley Project service area.

Commerce must enter into an agreement with the United States Digital Service for the Service to make recommendations to modernize and streamline the fishery data collection, processing, analysis, and storage systems of the National Marine Fisheries Service.