[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2706 Enrolled Bill (ENR)]

        H.R.2706

                      One Hundred Twelfth Congress

                                 of the

                        United States of America


                          AT THE SECOND SESSION

          Begun and held at the City of Washington on Tuesday,
            the third day of January, two thousand and twelve


                                 An Act


 
                    To prohibit the sale of billfish.

    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 ``Billfish Conservation Act of 2012''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
    Congress finds the following:
        (1) The United States carefully regulates its domestic 
    fisheries for billfish and participates in international fishery 
    management bodies in the Atlantic and Pacific.
        (2) Global billfish populations have declined significantly, 
    however, because of overfishing primarily through retention of 
    bycatch by non-United States commercial fishing fleets.
        (3) Ending the importation of foreign-caught billfish for sale 
    in the United States aligns with U.S. management measures of 
    billfish and protects the significant economic benefits to the U.S. 
    economy of recreational fishing and marine commerce and the 
    traditional cultural fisheries.
SEC. 3. STATEMENT OF CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY.
    The Congress enacts this Act pursuant to clause 3 of section 8 of 
article I of the Constitution.
SEC. 4. PROHIBITION ON SALE OF BILLFISH.
    (a) Prohibition.--No person shall offer for sale, sell, or have 
custody, control, or possession of for purposes of offering for sale or 
selling billfish or products containing billfish.
    (b) Penalty.--For purposes of section 308(a) of the Magnuson-
Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (16 U.S.C. 1858(a)), a 
violation of this section shall be treated as an act prohibited by 
section 307 of that Act (16 U.S.C. 1857).
    (c) Exemptions for Traditional Fisheries and Markets.--
        (1) Subsection (a) does not apply to billfish caught by US 
    fishing vessels and landed in the State of Hawaii or Pacific 
    Insular Areas as defined in section 3(35) of the Magnuson-Stevens 
    Fishery Conservation and Management Act (16 U.S.C. 1802(35)).
        (2) Subsection (a) does not apply to billfish landed by foreign 
    fishing vessels in the Pacific Insular Areas when the foreign 
    caught billfish is exported to non-US markets or retained within 
    Hawaii and the Pacific Insular Areas for local consumption.
    (d) Billfish Defined.--In this section the term ``billfish''--
        (1) means any fish of the species--
            (A) Makaira nigricans (blue marlin);
            (B) Kajikia audax (striped marlin);
            (C) Istiompax indica (black marlin);
            (D) Istiophorus platypterus (sailfish);
            (E) Tetrapturus angustirostris (shortbill spearfish);
            (F) Kajikia albida (white marlin);
            (G) Tetrapturus georgii (roundscale spearfish);
            (H) Tetrapturus belone (Mediterranean spearfish); and
            (I) Tetrapturus pfluegeri (longbill spearfish); and
        (2) does not include the species Xiphias gladius (swordfish).

                               Speaker of the House of Representatives.

                            Vice President of the United States and    
                                               President of the Senate.