Sustainable Fisheries Act

Title I: Conservation and Management Title II: Fishery Monitoring and Research Title III: Fisheries Financing Title IV: Marine Fishery Statute Reauthorizations Sustainable Fisheries Act - Title I: Conservation and Management - Amends the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson Act) to modify the Act's purposes and declarations of congressional policies. (Sec. 103) Authorizes appropriations to carry out the Act. (Sec. 105) Modifies foreign fishing prohibitions and requirements. Provides for an international agreement on bycatch reduction standards and measures. Modifies requirements regarding congressional review of international fishery agreements. Authorizes the issuance of transshipment permits. Authorizes Pacific Insular Area (American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, Midway Island, Wake Island, or Palmyra Atoll) Fishery Agreements to authorize foreign fishing in the Exclusive Economic Zone adjacent to an Area. Regulates permit fee use. Establishes the Western Pacific Sustainable Fisheries Fund to receive payments under Area agreements. Mandates issuance of permits to up to 14 Canadian transport vessels, not equipped for fish harvesting or processing, for the transshipment, in or near the State of Maine, of Atlantic herring harvested by United States fishermen and used solely in sardine processing. Modifies the mandated content of a report on large-scale driftnet fishing. Mandates a report to specified congressional committees regarding fishery harvests in the Bering Sea. (Sec. 106) Requires national fishery conservation and management standards to: (1) provide for the sustained participation of fishing communities and minimize adverse economic impacts on those communities; (2) minimize bycatch and its mortality; and (3) promote the safety of human life at sea. (Sec. 107) Modifies Fishery Management Council requirements regarding composition, operations, jurisdiction, disclosure of financial interest, and other matters. (Sec. 108) Modifies fishery management plan required and discretionary contents. Prohibits, until October 1, 2000, individual fishing quota programs unless approved before January 4, 1995. Modifies and creates other quota-related requirements. Repeals provisions of the Omnibus Consolidated Rescissions and Appropriations Act of 1996 prohibiting use of funds under such Act to develop or implement new fishery management plans, amendments, or regulations that create new individual fishing quota, individual transferable quota, or new individual transferable effort allocation programs until offsetting fees to pay for the administration of such plans, amendments, or regulations are expressly authorized under the Magnuson Act. Requires the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to recommend a program that uses the full amount of fees authorized to be used under specified provisions in the halibut and sablefish fisheries off Alaska to guarantee obligations. Requires the National Academy of Sciences to report on the performance and effectiveness of the community development quota programs under the authority of the North Pacific and Western Pacific Councils. (Sec. 109) Amends the Magnuson Act to revise requirements regarding the review and taking effect of fishery management plans, amendments, and regulations. Requires the Secretary of Commerce to collect fees relating to any individual fishing quota program or community development quota program. Prohibits, until January 1, 2000, the collection of fees in the surf clam and ocean quahog fishery or in the wreckfish fishery. Replaces provisions mandating fisheries research with provisions requiring an annual report and other actions relating to overfishing. Removes provisions relating to fisheries under the jurisdiction of more than one Council. Replaces provisions relating to incidental harvest research with provisions mandating the preparation of a management plan or amendment regarding certain highly migratory species fisheries. Directs the Secretary to establish an advisory panel, conduct surveys and workshops, and take other actions regarding pelagic longline fishing vessels that participate in fisheries for Atlantic highly migratory species. Authorizes the Secretary to implement a related comprehensive management system. Authorizes the repeal or revocation of a fishery management plan under the authority of a Council only if the Council approves the repeal or revocation by a three-quarters majority. Declares that the Magnuson Act shall not apply to the American Lobster Fishery Management Plan. (Sec. 110) Requires publication of a list of all fisheries under each Council and all gear used in such fishing. Requires anyone using gear or engaging in a fishery not on the list to give advance notice to the appropriate Council. Allows related emergency prohibitions on gear or fishing. Mandates guidelines regarding fish habitat conservation and enhancement. Modifies requirements regarding emergency actions (including concerning oil spills) and adds to the emergency action provisions references to interim measures needed to reduce overfishing. Modifies provisions regarding the effect of certain laws on specified time requirements. Authorizes establishment of a fishery negotiation panel to assist in the development of specific conservation and management measures for a fishery. Mandates establishment of an exclusive central registry system for any limited access system permits established, to provide for the registration of titles and interests. Authorizes the collection of fees and establishes the Limited Access System Administration Fund. (Sec. 111) Mandates establishment of a western Alaska community development quota program under which a percentage of the total allowable catch of any Bering Sea fishery is allocated to the program. Requires a phase-in of an increase in such quotas approved in 1995 by the North Pacific Council for the Bearing Sea crab fisheries. Allows establishment of a western Pacific community development program. Authorizes direct grants to eligible western Pacific communities, as recommended by the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council, to establish from three to five fishery demonstration projects to promote traditional indigenous fishing practices. Requires establishment of a related advisory panel. (Sec. 112) Modifies provisions concerning: (1) State jurisdiction; (2) prohibited acts; (3) civil penalties and permit sanctions; (4) rebuttable presumptions; and (5) enforcement. (Sec. 116) Authorizes expenditures for fishery resource disasters (resulting from natural causes, man-made causes beyond the control of fishery managers, or undetermined causes). Authorizes appropriations. Authorizes a fishing capacity reduction program if certain requirements are met. Makes participation voluntary. Provides for funding, including authorizing an industry fee system if approved by an industry referendum. Mandates establishment of a task force to study and report on the Federal role in subsidizing the expansion and contraction of fishing capacity and otherwise influencing aggregate capital investments in fisheries. Amends Federal law to allow amounts derived from fishery product customs duties to be used to fund the Federal share of the capacity reduction program. (Sec. 117) Amends the Magnuson Act to require the North Pacific Council to submit conservation and management measures to lower economic discards. Allows: (1) a system of fines to provide incentives to reduce bycatch and bycatch rates; and (2) measures that provide allocations of regulatory discards to individual vessels as an incentive to reduce bycatch. Requires the Council to: (1) submit conservation and management measures to ensure total catch measurement; and (2) report on the advisability of requiring the full retention by fishing vessels and full use by U.S. fish processors of economic discards if the economic discards (or the mortality of the discards) cannot be avoided. Title II: Fishery Monitoring and Research - Directs the Secretary to develop recommendations for a regional standardized fishing vessel registration and information management system. Requires a report to the Congress on the need to include recreational fishing vessels in such a system. (Sec. 203) Provides for an information collection program specific to the needs of a fishery. Authorizes a grant, contract, or other financial assistance on a sole-source basis to a State, Council, or Marine Fisheries Commission to carry out the collection or other programs in certain circumstances. Allows the use of private sector vessels, equipment, and services to survey U.S. fishery resources when the arrangement will yield statistically reliable results. (Sec. 204) Sets forth provisions regarding observers, including concerning regulations, training, and workers' compensation. (Sec. 205) Requires: (1) a comprehensive program of fishery research to carry out this Act; (2) a program to develop technological and other changes to minimize shrimp trawl bycatch, evaluate related ecological impacts, benefits, and costs, and assess the use of unavoidable bycatch; (3) the Secretary to report to specified congressional committees on incidental harvest by the shrimp trawl fishery; and (4) establishment of a fishery conservation and management ecosystem advisory panel. Mandates an independent peer review regarding the Gulf of Mexico red snapper fishery. Prohibits the Gulf Council, until October 1, 2000, from preparing any plan, amendment, or regulation that creates an individual quota program or authorizes consolidation of licenses, permits, or endorsements that result in different trip limits for vessels in the same class. Allows such actions after that date only if approved in a referendum. Requires any Gulf Council plan, amendment, or regulation submitted after enactment of this Act to: (1) contain separate quotas for recreational and commercial fishing; and (2) ensure that the quotas reflect allocations among such sectors and do not reflect harvests in excess of such allocations. Requires: (1) a study of the contribution of bycatch to charitable organizations; (2) a study to determine the best method of identifying various Atlantic and Pacific salmon and steelhead stocks in the ocean at the time of harvest; and (3) a peer review, conducted by the National Academy of Sciences, of scientific information used for conservation and management in the Northeast multispecies fishery. Title III: Fisheries Financing - Fisheries Financing Act - Amends the Merchant Marine Act, 1936 to authorize guarantees for the purchase of individual fishing quotas. Requires that guarantees of obligations, under Federal ship mortgage insurance provisions relating to fishing vessels or fishery facilities, be limited to not more than (currently, be equal to) 80 percent of the cost of the vessel or facility. Prohibits new loan guarantees until October 1, 2001, for new fishing vessel construction if the construction will result in an increased harvesting capacity in the U.S. exclusive economic zone. (Sec. 303) Authorizes guarantees for obligations issued in connection with a fishing capacity reduction program established under specified provisions. Establishes the fishing capacity reduction fund. Requires that obligations under specified provisions issued after the enactment of this Act be direct loan obligations. Title IV: Marine Fishery Statute Reauthorizations - Authorizes appropriations to enable the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to carry out, under the Fish and Wildlife Act of 1956 and any other Act involving those activities: (1) fisheries information and analysis activities; (2) fisheries conservation and management operations; and (3) State and industry cooperative programs. Amends the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Marine Fisheries Program Authorization Act to authorize appropriations for the operation of the Chesapeake Bay Estuarine Resources Office. Authorizes the Secretary of Commerce to provide up to $2 million to Caritas Christi for the implementation of a health care plan for fishermen in New England if certain requirements are met. (Sec. 402) Amends the Interjurisdictional Fisheries Act of 1986 to authorize appropriations to carry out the Act and to support the efforts of specified interstate commissions to develop interstate fishery management plans for interjurisdictional fishery resources. Mandates an annual report on the New England fishing capacity reduction initiative. (Sec. 403) Amends the Anadromous Fish Conservation Act to authorize appropriations to carry out the Act. (Sec. 404) Amends the Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Cooperative Management Act to authorize the implementation of regulations governing fishing in the Exclusive Economic Zone that are compatible with (currently, that are necessary to support) the effective implementation of a coastal fishery management plan. Allows, notwithstanding certain other laws or fishery management plans and with the approval of the State of Maine, a person holding a commercial American lobster fishing license to engage in commercial American lobster fishing in specified Federal waters. Mandates, in certain circumstances, interim regulations regarding the taking of lobsters in the exclusive economic zone by a method other than pots or traps. Authorizes appropriations to carry out the Act. Amends the Fisheries Act of 1995 to extend the deadline for implementation of recommendations of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas.

TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Conservation and Management Title II: Fishery Monitoring and Research Title III: Fisheries Financing Title IV: Marine Fishery Statute Reauthorizations Sustainable Fisheries Act - Title I: Conservation and Management - Amends the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson Act) to modify the Act's purposes and declarations of congressional policies. (Sec. 104) Authorizes appropriations to carry out the Act. (Sec. 106) Modifies foreign fishing prohibitions and requirements. Provides for an international agreement on bycatch reduction standards and measures. Modifies requirements regarding congressional review of international fishery agreements. Authorizes the issuance of transshipment permits. Authorizes Pacific Insular Area (American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, Midway Island, Wake Island, or Palmyra Atoll) Fishery Agreements to authorize foreign fishing in the Exclusive Economic Zone adjacent to an Area. Regulates permit fee use. Prohibits the importation of certain fishery products from a nation not agreeing to the international bycatch agreement. Modifies the mandated content of a report on large-scale driftnet fishing. (Sec. 107) Modifies national fishery conservation and management standards to require: (1) minimization of adverse economic impacts on fishing communities; (2) minimization of bycatch; and (3) promotion of safety of human life at sea. (Sec. 108) Modifies requirements regarding Fishery Management Councils. (Sec. 109) Modifies fishery management plan required and discretionary contents. Prohibits individual fishing quota programs unless approved before January 4, 1995. Requires the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to recommend a program that uses the full amount of fees authorized to be used under specified provisions in the halibut and sablefish fisheries off Alaska to guarantee obligations. (Sec. 110) Revises requirements regarding the review and taking effect of fishery management plans, amendments, and regulations. Requires the Secretary of Commerce to collect fees relating to any individual fishing quota program or community development quota program. Replaces provisions mandating fisheries research with provisions requiring an annual report and other actions relating to overfishing. Removes provisions relating to fisheries under the jurisdiction of more than one Council. Replaces provisions relating to incidental harvest research with provisions mandating the preparation of a management plan or amendment regarding certain highly migratory species fisheries. (Sec. 111) Requires publication of a list of all fisheries under each Council and all gear used in such fishing. Requires anyone using gear or engaging in a fishery not on the list to give advance notice to the appropriate Council. Allows related emergency prohibitions on gear or fishing. Mandates guidelines regarding fish habitat conservation and enhancement. Modifies requirements regarding emergency actions. Authorizes establishment of a fishery negotiation panel to assist in the development of specific conservation and management measures for a fishery. Mandates establishment of an exclusive central registry system for any limited access system permits established, to provide for the registration of titles and interests. (Sec. 112) Mandates establishment of a western Alaska community development quota program under which a percentage of the total allowable catch of any Bering Sea fishery is allocated to the program. Allows establishment of a western Pacific community development program. Allows the program to include an allocation of a percentage of total catch to participating western Pacific communities. Authorizes direct grants to eligible western Pacific communities, as recommended by the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council, to establish from three to five fishery demonstration projects to promote traditional indigenous fishing practices. Requires establishment of a related advisory panel. (Sec. 113) Modifies provisions concerning: (1) State jurisdiction; (2) prohibited acts; (3) civil penalties and permit sanctions; (4) rebuttable presumptions; and (5) enforcement. (Sec. 117) Requires the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to recommend conservation and management measures to lower economic discards. Allows the Council to recommend: (1) a system of fees to provide incentives to reduce bycatch and bycatch rates; and (2) measures that provide allocations of regulatory discards to individual vessels as an incentive to reduce bycatch. Requires the Council to: (1) recommend conservation and management measures to ensure total catch measurement; and (2) report on the advisability of requiring the full retention by fishing vessels and full use by U.S. fish processors of economic discards if the economic discards (or the mortality of the discards) cannot be avoided. (Sec. 118) Authorizes a fishing capacity reduction program if certain requirements are met. Makes participation voluntary. Provides for funding, including authorizing an industry fee system if approved by an industry referendum. Mandates establishment of a task force to study and report on the Federal role in subsidizing the expansion and contraction of fishing capacity and otherwise influencing aggregate capital investments in fisheries. Authorizes the Secretary to work with interested parties to develop a sustainable development strategy for any fishery identified as overfished or determined to be a commercial fishery failure. Authorizes expenditures for fishery resource disasters (resulting from natural causes, man-made causes beyond the control of fishery managers, or undetermined causes). Authorizes appropriations. Amends Federal law to allow amounts derived from fishery product customs duties to be used to fund the Federal share of a buy-out program established under amendments made by this Act. Title II: Fishery Monitoring and Research - Amends the Magnuson Act to direct the Secretary to develop recommendations for a standardized fishing vessel registration and data management system on a regional basis. Requires a report to the Congress on the need to include private recreational fishing vessels used exclusively for pleasure in the system. (Sec. 203) Provides for a data collection program specific to the needs of a fishery. Allows sole-source contracting when the grant recipient is a State, Council, or Marine Fisheries Commission. Allows the use of private sector vessels, equipment, and services to survey U.S. fishery resources when the arrangement will yield statistically reliable results. (Sec. 204) Sets forth provisions regarding observers, including concerning regulations, training, wages, and worker's compensation. (Sec. 205) Requires: (1) a comprehensive program of fishery research to carry out this Act; (2) the Secretary to report to specified congressional committees on incidental harvest by shrimp trawl fisheries; (3) establishment of a fisheries ecosystem management advisory panel; (4) an independent peer review regarding the Gulf of Mexico red snapper fishery; (5) a study of the contribution of bycatch to charitable organizations; and (6) a study to determine the best method of identifying various Atlantic and Pacific salmon and steelhead stocks in the ocean at the time of harvest. Title III: Fisheries Financing - Fisheries Financing Act - Amends the Merchant Marine Act, 1936 to authorize guarantees for refinancing fishery stock recovery efforts. Authorizes the Secretary to guarantee the repayment of debt obligations issued in connection with a fishing capacity reduction program established under specified provisions of the Magnuson Act. (Sec. 303) Authorizes guarantees of obligations that aid in financing or refinancing the purchase of individual fishing quotas. Regulates obligation contents. Limits Fishing Vessel Obligation loan guarantees to a specified annual dollar amount. Prohibits, until October 1, 2001, Federal guarantees of loans for the construction of new fishing vessels if the construction would result in an increased harvesting capacity in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone. Title IV: Marine Fishery Statute Reauthorizations - Authorizes appropriations to enable the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to carry out, under the Fish and Wildlife Act of 1956 and any other Act involving those activities: (1) fisheries information and analysis activities; (2) fisheries conservation and management operations; and (3) State and industry cooperative programs. Amends the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Marine Fisheries Program Authorization Act to authorize appropriations for the operation of the Chesapeake Bay Estuarine Resources Office. (Sec. 402) Amends the Interjurisdictional Fisheries Act of 1986 to authorize appropriations to carry out the Act and to support the efforts of specified interstate commissions to develop interstate fishery management plans for interjurisdictional fishery resources. Authorizes appropriations for measures to alleviate impacts incurred as a direct result of a fishery resource disaster arising from any natural disaster. Modifies related requirements. (Sec. 403) Amends the Anadromous Fish Conservation Act to authorize appropriations to carry out the Act. (Sec. 404) Amends the Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Cooperative Management Act to authorize the implementation of regulations governing fishing in the Exclusive Economic Zone that are compatible with (currently, that are necessary to support) the effective implementation of a coastal fishery management plan. Authorizes appropriations.

TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Conservation and Management Title II: Fishery Monitoring and Research Title III: Fisheries Stock Recovery Financing Sustainable Fisheries Act - Title I: Conservation and Management - Amends the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act to include among its purposes the advocacy of fishery habitat protection. (Sec. 104) Authorizes appropriations for FY 1993 through 1999 to carry out such Act. (Sec. 107) Revises the guidelines governing permits for foreign fishing vessels. (Sec. 108) Repeals the large-scale driftnet fishing reporting requirements. (Sec. 109) Modifies the national standards for fishery conservation and management to include the mandate that conservation and management measures minimize the incidental catch of non-target living marine resources. (Sec. 110) Expands the number of voting members on the Pacific Fishery Management Council to include one appointed from an Indian tribe with federally recognized fishing rights from a member State. Prescribes selection guidelines for such Indian representative. Authorizes each Regional Fishery Management Council to establish a negotiation panel to assist in the development of specific conservation and management measures for a fishery. (Sec. 111) Modifies the guidelines governing the contents of fishery management plans to include: (1) protection of essential fish habitat; (2) prevention of overfishing; (3) assessment of the level of bycatch; and (4) minimization of mortality caused by discards. Requires the Secretary of Commerce to establish guidelines for individual transferable quotas systems. (Sec. 112) Revises actions by the Secretary after receipt of a fishery management plan. Requires the Secretary to establish the level of fees for fishing vessel permits. (Sec. 113) Requires the Secretary to report annually to the Congress and the Councils on the status of fisheries within each Council's geographical area and identify those fisheries that are approaching a condition of being overfished or are overfished. Requires the appropriate Council to prepare a fishery management plan to prevent or stop overfishing. (Sec. 114) Modifies provisions concerning: (1) State jurisdiction; (2) prohibited acts; (3) civil penalties and permit sanctions; and (4) enforcement. (Sec. 118) Requires the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to include in each fishery management plan conservation and management measures, including fees or other incentives, to reduce bycatch. (Sec. 119) Grants the Secretary discretionary authority to work with interested parties to develop a sustainable development strategy for any fishery classified as overfished or determined to be a commercial fishery failure. Establishes an Ocean Conservation Trust Fund to carry out this section. Authorizes appropriations for FY 1995 through 1999 for fishery resource disasters, if such funds are designated by the Congress as an emergency requirement under the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act). Title II: Fishery Monitoring and Research - Directs the Secretary, in cooperation with the Secretary of the department in which the Coast Guard is operating, the States, the Councils, and Marine Fisheries Commissions, to develop recommendations for implementation of a standardized fishing vessel registration and data management system on a national or regional basis. Requires a report to the Congress on the need to include private recreational fishing vessels used exclusively for pleasure into such system. (Sec. 203) Provides for a Council to implement a data collection program specific to the needs of a fishery management plan. (Sec. 204) Directs the Secretary to issue guidelines for the carrying of observers on fishing vessels. (Sec. 205) Directs the Secretary to publish, every three years after enactment of this Act, a strategic plan for fisheries research for the five years immediately following such publication. (Sec. 206) Requires the Secretary to report to specified congressional committees on programs that assess the impact on fishery resources of incidental harvest by shrimp trawl fisheries. Title III: Fisheries Stock Recovery Financing - Fisheries Stock Recovery Financing Act - Amends the Merchant Marine Act, 1936 to authorize guarantees for refinancing fishery stock recovery efforts. (Sec. 303) Requires the financing of fishing vessels and fishery facilities through the Federal Financing Bank, unless placement through such bank is not reasonably available or placement elsewhere is available at lower financing. (Sec. 304) Modifies provisions for fees for guaranteeing obligations with respect to fishing vessels and fishing facilities.