Why It Matters: There are seven federal agencies under four different cabinet-level secretaries that have some degree of jurisdiction and regulatory authority over what hunters, anglers, and boaters can or cannot do on navigable waters. As a compliment to the MAPWaters Act (H.R. 187) for the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture that recently cleared the U.S. House of Representatives, the MAPOceans Act recently passed the Senate and requires the federal agency with the largest area of U.S. waters under their jurisdiction, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), to digitize and map public information about federal fishing and boating restrictions in marine waters. This bill is one of many priority pieces of legislation for the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF) in the 119th Congress.
Highlights:
- NOAA has jurisdictional authority of our nation’s marine fisheries resources from the limit of a state or territorial sea (3 or 9 miles from shore, depending on the state) out to the 200-mile limit of the exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
- A lot of water – a lot of rules! In addition to the 1.24 million square miles of water in marine protected areas (MPA’s) mostly under their authority, NOAA also manages 460 fish stocks or stock complexes through the eight Regional Fishery Management Councils.
Last week, the Modernizing Access to Our Public Oceans Act, also known as the MAPOceans Act, cleared the Senate unanimously. Introduced by Senator Ted Cruz (TX) and CSC Senate Vice-Chair Senator Angus King (ME), the bill seeks to make accessing federal waters easier by eliminating any confusion for public recreation on our nation’s marine and coastal waterways through standardizing, consolidating, and publishing digital data concerning regulations on marine waters under federal management.
“We applaud Senator Cruz and Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus Co-Chair Senator King for their leadership in passing the MAPOceans Act out of the Senate,” said Chris Horton, Senior Director of Fisheries Policy for the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation. “This much needed, bipartisan legislation will finally remove the uncertainty about where we can fish and with what gear that can often create barriers for angler participation on our coastal waters.”
The MAPOceans Act will direct NOAA to digitize and make available to the public any access or recreational use restriction on marine waters under the agency’s jurisdiction. Marine protected areas (MPAs) cover 26% of U.S. marine waters, most of which are under NOAA’s watch. In addition, through NOAA’s eight Regional Fishery Management Councils, 46 management plans covering 460 fish stocks or stock complexes create a mosaic of fishing regulations and restrictions that are often location specific and can be cumbersome to understand. The MAPOceans Act will ultimately benefit anglers and boaters by helping them know which waters are open or closed to boating or fishing, if there are seasonal closures for certain species of fish in specific locations, and what types of fishing gear is allowable in any given area, among others.
The MAPOceans legislation was introduced earlier this spring in the House by Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus (CSC) Member Congressman Russell Fry (SC) and Congressman Mike Levin (CA). CSF looks forward to working with the bill sponsors to clear the legislation in the House and send it to the President’s desk in 2025.
