Sustainable Fisheries Act

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.