[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3424 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

112th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3424

                   To prohibit the sale of billfish.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             July 24, 2012

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

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
                   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) Billfish populations are severely depleted and in need 
        of greater protection.
            (2) Billfish population declines are largely attributable 
        to overfishing by non-United States commercial fishing fleets 
        that harvest billfish as bycatch while targeting other species.
            (3) Commercial fisheries in the United States do not target 
        billfish.
            (4) The current United States prohibition on the commercial 
        harvest and sale of billfish is limited to Atlantic-caught 
        fish.
            (5) There are no existing conservation measures that 
        prohibit the importation of Pacific-caught billfish.
            (6) Billfish account for less than 0.1 percent of the 
        market value of United States seafood.
            (7) The United States seafood market is highly elastic and 
        consumers have a large number of sustainable seafood 
        alternatives.
            (8) Catch and release recreational angling for billfish 
        generates billions of dollars in economic benefits to the 
        United States economy each year.
            (9) Prohibiting the sale of Pacific-caught billfish in the 
        continental United States will assist in the recovery of 
        billfish populations worldwide.

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) In general.--Subsection (a) does not apply to 
        billfish--
                    (A) caught by United States vessels and landed in 
                the State of Hawaii or the Pacific Insular Area; or
                    (B) landed by foreign vessels in the Pacific 
                Insular Areas if the foreign caught billfish is 
                exported to markets outside the United States or 
                retained within the Pacific Insular Area for local 
                consumption.
            (2) Pacific insular area defined.--In this subsection, the 
        term ``Pacific Insular Area'' has the meaning given that term 
        in section 3 of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and 
        Management Act (16 U.S.C. 1802).
    (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).
                                 <all>