Bycatch Reduction Act

This bill sets new rules for trawl fishing in the Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands, and Gulf of Alaska. It would require federal fishery managers to measure how trawl nets touch the seafloor, require seafloor contact sensors and modified gear, and require salmon excluder devices on mid-water trawl vessels, with violations treated as breaking federal fisheries law. It would require the North Pacific fishery council to hold recorded votes, post meeting recordings, and allow at least 4 weeks for written public comment. It would ban U.S. transactions involving seafood from foreign vessels unless the Commerce Secretary finds the source fishery meets comparable U.S. conservation standards. It also funds bycatch research, a gear-testing flume tank, electronic monitoring changes, and a donation-based fund to help fishermen buy or modify gear.

Full text and official record on Congress.gov

Sponsors

• Nicholas J. Begich III Republican sponsor
• 0 cosponsors