Just as the Pew Oceans Commission and prominent fisheries scientists are warning of the collapse of our ocean ecosystems, Senator Stevens, the powerful chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, is trying to roll back some of the most vital conservation provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (Magnuson Act)-- ironically, a law that bears the Senator’s name as a key author. Unless it is voted down the Stevens rider will:

• Stop fishery managers at the regional and federal levels from protecting essential fish habitat in the North Pacific as mandated by the Magnuson Act. By blocking funding for this activity the Stevens rider stops a 7-year effort to protect essential fish habitat, including recently-discovered deep water coral and sponge habitats, from destructive fishing practices like bottom trawling;
• Encourage the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to reopen fishing for severely depleted Aleutian Islands Pollock;
• Mandate the continuation of a groundfish fishery that causes substantial habitat damage, targets long-lived fish especially vulnerable to overfishing, and kills other marine life as bycatch; and,
• Further micromanage the work of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council by Congressionally mandating the allocation of fisheries.