Five U.S. senators have reintroduced the Fighting Foreign Illegal Seafood Harvest (FISH) Act, which would ban vessels involved in illegal fishing from U.S. ports and waters.
U.S. senators Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), and Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi) introduced the bill on 20 April, after having backed it in the previous congressional session in August 2022.
The bill would create a blacklist of vessels that have engaged in illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing and ban all listed vessels from entering U.S. waters. The FISH Act also mandates the U.S. Coast Guard to increase its at-sea inspection of foreign vessels suspected of IUU fishing, and to coordinate with regional fishery management organizations to determine if a vessel’s flag-state is taking corrective action. It also instructs the executive branch, headed by U.S. President Joe Biden, to maintain a database of new technologies with potential to aid in the fight against IUU fishing.
“I am pleased to reintroduce the FISH Act with Senator Sullivan, one of my longtime partners on oceans issues,” Whitehouse said in a press release. “Our bipartisan bill cracks down on illegal fishing operations to level the playing field for Rhode Island fishermen and processors who play by the rules. This all-hands-on-deck approach will help stamp out IUU fishing operations and restore the fisheries that keep our oceans vibrant and healthy.”
The bill also calls for a study of “the complexities of the seafood trade relationship between Russia and China,” and the success of prosecutions against IUU fishing operations in U.S. waters.