A bill that would blacklist foreign fishing vessels found illegally operating in U.S. waters drew strong bipartisan support Wednesday in a House hearing focused on fisheries management.
H.R. 3756, the “Fighting Foreign Illegal Seafood Harvests (FISH) Act,” would reform the current NOAA program aimed at combating illegal fishing in U.S. waters, while also bulking up the U.S. Coast Guard’s enforcement abilities.
“Our communities depend on clean, healthy oceans and reliable harvest,” Rep. Nick Begich (R-Alaska), one of the “FISH Act’s” co-sponsors, told the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries.
He continued: “But when foreign fleets operate outside the bounds of responsible management and flood global markets with illegally harvested seafood, they undermine both conservation efforts and the livelihoods of law-abiding American fishermen.”
