[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1756 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

103d CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1756

To encourage the optimum utilization of fisheries resources, to reduce 
   waste in commercial fish harvesting and processing, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

            November 20 (legislative day, November 2), 1993

 Mr. Murkowski introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
   referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To encourage the optimum utilization of fisheries resources, to reduce 
   waste in commercial fish harvesting and processing, and for other 
                               purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Commercial Fisheries Waste Reduction 
Act of 1993''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds that:
            (1) Current commercial fisheries practices in the United 
        States and world wide contribute to a significant waste of 
        edible food resources which are harvested, but discarded 
        without processing for human consumption or other uses.
            (2) Fish currently harvested but discarded without 
        processing include in some fisheries large numbers of juvenile 
        fish which would have significantly greater value both as an 
        economic asset to the fishery and to the maintenance of the 
        species if they were allowed to reach maturity before 
        harvesting.
            (3) Fish currently harvested but discarded without 
        processing include in some commercial fisheries significant 
        numbers of adult fish or fish parts which could be processed 
        for human consumption, but which are required to be discarded 
        for various fisheries management purposes, or which are 
        considered unsuitable for a particular market of immediate 
        interest to the fishing vessel operator.
            (4) Fish currently harvested but discarded without 
        processing include significant numbers of fish of species for 
        which there is presently no viable market, but which, if they 
        remained unharvested, could form the basis for future fisheries 
        as new markets and processing techniques are developed.
            (5) There is cause for concern that current levels of 
        mortalities among non-target fish species may have adverse 
        environmental consequences.
            (6) High discard levels, if concentrated geographically, 
        may cause damage to the productivity of the resources using the 
        ocean bottom and near-bottom areas.
            (7) The current level of scientific knowledge is 
        insufficient to determine if adverse impacts may result from 
        the removal of nutrients presently returned to the ocean 
        through the discard of non-target fish species and of 
        unutilized portions of targeted species.
            (8) It is in the national interest both environmentally and 
        economically to minimize mortalities among non-target species 
        taken incidentally to the various directed fisheries.
            (9) It is in the national interest to encourage the 
        utilization where practicable of all parts of fish harvested in 
        directed fisheries for the species.

SEC. 3. AMENDMENTS TO MAGNUSON ACT.

    The Fisheries Conservation and Management Act (16 U.S.C. 1801 et. 
seq.) is amended--
            (1) in subsection 1801(b)(4) by inserting ``in a non-
        wasteful manner and'' after ``maintain,'';
            (2) in subsection 1801(b)(6) by inserting ``in a non-
        wasteful manner'' after ``such development'';
            (3) in subsection 1802(21)(B) by inserting ``, including 
        efforts to limit mortality in non-target species for the 
        purposes of resource conservation and food production'' after 
        ``ecological factor'';
            (4) in section 1802 by adding at the end the following new 
        paragraph:
            ``(33) The term `non-target species' means fish caught 
        incidentally to fishing for a particular species or group of 
        species and which may or may not be retained aboard the fishing 
        vessel for subsequent processing and/or sale.'';
            (5) in section 1851(a)(1) by adding ``and encourage the 
        minimization of mortalities among non-target species'' after 
        ``prevent overfishing'';
            (6) in section 1851(a)(5) by striking the word ``promote'' 
        and inserting in its place the word ``consider'';
            (7) in section 1851(a) by adding at the end the following 
        new paragraph:
            ``(8) Conservation and management measures shall encourage 
        the non-wasteful taking of fishery resources, including the 
        reduction of discards of fish and fish parts, and the 
        minimization of mortalities among non-target species.'';
            (8) in section 1853(a) by redesignating paragraph (4) as 
        paragraph (6) and renumbering the subsequent paragraphs 
        accordingly; and by inserting the following new paragraphs:
            ``(4) assess and specify--
                    ``(A) to the maximum extent practicable an estimate 
                by numbers of fish or weight thereof of the extent of 
                anticipated mortalities among non-target species taken 
                incidentally to the fishery or fisheries for which the 
                plan is prepared, and
                    ``(B) to the maximum extent practicable, an 
                estimate by numbers of fish or weight thereof of 
                anticipated discard levels of fish and fish parts taken 
                pursuant to the fishery, but not utilized;
            ``(5) contain a description of measures intended to reduce 
        mortalities among non-target species taken incidentally to the 
        fishery or fisheries for which the plan is prepared, and to 
        encourage the use of target species in a manner which minimizes 
        the discard of fish and fish parts;''; and
            (9) in section 1853 by adding at the end the following new 
        subsection:
    ``(g) Required Amendment of Management Plans.--Each council shall--
            ``(1) within one year from the date of enactment of this 
        subsection, submit to the Secretary such amendments for each 
        management plan under its jurisdiction as are needed to comply 
        with subsections (a)(4) and (5) of this section; and
            ``(2) thereafter submit annually to the Secretary a report 
        identifying any changes to the estimates and descriptions 
        required in subsection (a) (4) and (5) and in paragraph (1) of 
        this subsection, and providing an explanation of the cause or 
        causes of such changes.''.

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