Our History

THE KONA PROJECT

The Wild Oceans Kona Project is a multi-year, comprehensive undertaking to improve the understanding of billfish nursery grounds and use this information to champion better protections. The Project has three distinct components consisting of efforts in research, management and education. The Kona Project seeks to inform holistic conservation-based management strategies with the ultimate goal of achieving healthier billfish populations and better fishing opportunities for small boat fishermen and anglers across the Pacific.

THE FLORIDA FORAGE FISH COALITION

Wild Oceans is also a proud partner in the Florida Forage Fish Coalition.  Coalition partners play an important role in supporting, promoting and communicating forage fish research to managers, stakeholders and the general public.  Funds raised through the Florida Forage Fish Research Program provide fellowships to graduate students at Florida universities who collaborate with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (FWRI) to advance our understanding of forage fish. The program produces high-quality research on the value of forage fish to predators and marine habitats, builds collaborative partnerships between academia and FWRI, and fosters the next generation of fisheries scientists.

BILLFISH CONSERVATION ACT AMENDMENT OF 2018

Congress passes and President Trump signs into law HR 4528, a bill amending the Billfish Conservation Act (BCA) of 2012, which eliminated a sizable component of the global billfish market by banning imports into the U.S. This ‘technical amendment’ clarifies that Pacific billfish exempted from the BCA’s federal no-sale provision are only to be sold locally in Hawaii and Pacific island territories. In effect, it achieves the BCA’s original intent to prohibit the sale of billfish within the mainland U.S. while allowing for a cultural tradition in the islands – the local sale and consumption of billfish – to continue.

BILLFISH CONSERVATION ACT OF 2012

The Billfish Conservation Act of 2012 was signed by President Obama on October 5th. It effectively bans the importation of all billfish into the continental U.S. and is expected to end the sale of an estimated 30,000 marlin a year. It will also help close the black market for Atlantic-caught billfish. The Act marks the culmination of a united undertaking by a diverse coalition of angling and conservation organizations that NCMC Wild Oceans and IGFA helped mobilize to work in cooperation with a bipartisan group of congressional champions. For our work in passing the Act, we received the prestigious IGFA Conservation Award in January 2013.

ECOLOGICAL REFERENCE POINTS FOR ATLANTIC MENHADEN

In the years since a precautionary cap was placed on the harvest of menhaden in Chesapeake Bay, NCMC has been urging the ASMFC to develop ecological reference points (that is, limits on fishing mortality and targets for stock abundance) to gauge the status of menhaden and guide future management. In 2008 we were successful in persuading the commission to task its Management & Science Committee (MSC) with exploring new reference points and reporting back to the ASMFC in 2009. In the meantime, NCMC researched and prepared a scientific paper, Ecological Reference Points for Atlantic 8 Menhaden, and submitted it to the MSC. Our paper was based on a review of the scientific literature and management policies and practices used in other forage fisheries in the U.S. and abroad. Our recommendations gained the support of the chair of the MSC and inspired the Maryland Department of Natural Resources to make a motion at the August 2009 meeting of the Management Board to begin a new amendment to the menhaden FMP in 2010 that would incorporate reference points that protect menhaden as forage.

The NCMC white paper challenged the existing reference points as inadequate; a position affirmed by an independent peer review panel a year later (see below). Our recommended targets and limits – target abundance levels at 75% of the unfished level and fishing mortality below natural mortality levels – were corroborated in subsequent recommendations by the MSC’s Low Trophic Level Task Force (2011) and the Lenfest Forage Fish Task Force (2012).

SETTING STRONG STANDARDS FOR OFFSHORE AQUACULTURE

The global aquaculture industry is the largest consumer of forage fish, for meal and oil to feed farmed fish like salmon and tuna. The demand is expected to double in the next decade as the offshore aquaculture industry grows. Increasing pressure on forage fish will be felt by ocean predators as they compete for a food source that becomes more and more limited.

NCMC has been involved in setting national policy for open-ocean aquaculture since 2008, insisting that the U.S. establish strong environmental standards for fish farming, including limits on the use of wild fish as feed for aquaculture. We were pleased when a 2010 NOAA/Department of Agriculture report on The Future of Aquafeeds incorporated our concerns (and those of our partners in a loose and diverse coalition of interested groups, ranging from the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations to the Ocean Conservancy) by recognizing the importance of pelagic forage fish to marine ecosystems. The report acknowledges that increased demand for use of forage fish for use in aquaculture could provide an incentive to over-exploit these fisheries, with negative consequences for the marine environment, and that future supplies of forage fish may be limited as an ecosystem-based approach is applied to manage these fisheries. As the report states, “fisheries managed according to single species sustainable yield measures may not be sustainable from an ecosystem perspective if the importance of forage fish to other animals in the ecosystem is not accounted for. Catch limits or quotas may be reduced to leave a greater supply of forage fish in the oceans to support ecosystem functions.”

We continue to weigh in with NOAA on its aquaculture policy, commending the agency for affirming that aquaculture should be “in harmony with healthy, productive, and resilient marine ecosystems,” but demanding that the administration propose mandatory conditions for offshore aquaculture permitting that would prevent harm to marine ecosystems. We’ve also submitted comments on various bills introduced in Congress that 7 would set policy for developing an offshore aquaculture industry. NCMC president Ken Hinman testified before a House Fisheries and Oceans Subcommittee hearing in September 2009. So far, NOAA’s policy has not been implemented and legislation is stalled; forage is only one of many environmental concerns to be addressed before the U.S. gets into the open-ocean fish farming business.

TAKE MARLIN OFF THE MENU CAMPAIGN

The Take Marlin Off the Menu campaign was launched in 2008 by NCMC, in partnership with IGFA, after we both discovered that the U.S. is the largest importer of billfish in the world. The campaign has informed and educated consumers about the threatened status of marlin worldwide and the dangers of commercial overexploitation, as we work with restaurants and seafood retailers to take the marlin-free pledge (among them Wegmans Food Stores and chef Wolfgang 5 Puck) and with the compilers of sustainable seafood guides to put marlin on their fish-to-avoid list. Finally, we drafted national legislation to raise awareness to the issue and rally political support in Congress.

NEW NMFS POLICY ON CONSERVING FORAGE FISH

After the 2006 reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, NCMC saw an opportunity for forage fish conservation to be incorporated into revised National Standard 1 Guidelines (NMFS’ operational rules for implementing the Act). We had the idea to augment our ongoing activities at the councils by seeking explicit national guidance from NMFS on a more precautionary approach to managing forage fish. We testified at hearings and submitted written comments urging the agency to give the councils guidance on setting allowable catches within an ecosystems context. We partnered with the Marine Fish Conservation Network to conduct a workshop; NCMC moderated the discussions. The findings were used to construct technical guidance to be incorporated into the NS 1 Guidelines. Because of our efforts, the federal Guidelines that went into effect in 2009 cite maintenance of adequate forage for all components of the ecosystem as a goal in setting annual catch limits for fisheries; require that each FMP address predator-prey interactions and other ecological factors when determining the optimum yield (overall benefit to the nation); and declare that species interactions should be considered as reasons to set catch levels for forage fish lower and maintain forage fish populations higher than conventional management.

PRESERVING THE NORTHEAST FORAGE BASE

With our Taking the Bait blueprint in hand, we began working to amend the New England Council’s Atlantic herring plan in 2006. By the end of 2007 the plan was amended with a new objective that explicitly recognizes the importance of sea herring as prey. The council also implemented a near-shore closure to mid-water trawls in the Gulf of Maine where herring are scarce. Around the same time we joined a new Herring Alliance, giving a collective voice to nine regional and national groups (at the start; it’s since grown to over 30) with interests in herring as prey for cod and haddock, bluefin tuna, whales and seabirds.

After a 2007 report blaming the disappearance of river herring on at-sea bycatch in the sea herring and mackerel trawl fisheries, NCMC’s Pam Gromen played a leading role in efforts at the ASMFC to amend the interstate River Herring & Shad FMP to get greater instate protection of these anadromous species in their rivers of origin and calling on federal councils to reduce mortality while the fish are out in the ocean. Pam serves as chair of the river herring advisory panel. Because of the need for federal action, in 2009 we successfully got river herring bycatch reduction included as an objective in new amendments to the Atlantic herring and mackerel FMPs covering the offshore trawl fisheries.

In December 2010, the NCMC laid out the case for preserving the northeast forage base in a 44-page report. The purpose of Preserving the Northeast Forage Base: Opportunities to Advance Ecosystem-based Management of Fisheries in the U.S. Atlantic, was 6 to outline NCMC’s forage work plan on the east coast and to assist the fishing and environmental communities in evaluating opportunities for advocacy in the conservation of forage fish. It features an extensive overview of Northeast forage fisheries (shad and river herring, menhaden, mackerel, squid and butterfish, and sea herring), including recent issues and actions at the New England and Mid-Atlantic Councils as well as at the ASMFC, and an in-depth discussion of obstacles and opportunities along with specific recommendations for short- and long term action.

STRICTER CRITERIA FOR CERTIFYING FORAGE FISHERIES AS SUSTAINABLE

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) announced in 2006 that it was assessing the Gulf of California sardine fishery, the first feed-grade or reduction fishery to apply to for the MSC’s “sustainable” label. When the MSC called on other reduction fisheries to follow suit and apply for certification “in order to ensure the sustainability of these wild-capture fish used for feed stocks in aquaculture,” we saw a potential disaster. The aquaculture industry’s heavy dependence on wild-caught fish for feed is widely recognized as a serious risk to marine ecosystems. A subsequent NCMC review of MSC certification methodology revealed major weaknesses in its criteria; forage fisheries could be awarded the MSC label absent any safeguards for the ecosystem or dependent predators. We formally entered the certification process for the sardine fishery, with letters and detailed critiques of MSC assessment methodology, encouraged other NGOs to get involved, and met with MSC officials on a number of occasions, urging the organization to “raise the bar” on forage fishery assessments.

As a direct result of the efforts of NCMC and our allies, MSC’s criteria for certifying forage fisheries were strengthened in 2008 and the council agreed in 2009 to re-do their assessment of west coast sardine using the new criteria. But we provided another written evaluation of the new scoring system, showing that it was still inadequate to ensure that the ecological role of sardine and other forage species is protected. Later that year MSC agreed to convene a Low Trophic Level (forage 5 species) Fisheries Workshop, which we were invited to participate in, and then convened a Low Trophic Level Working Group to continue to examine the issues raised.

We were pleased when the new guidance crafted by this working group (and published in a peer reviewed journal) was adopted by the MSC in August 2011, specifying levels of forage stock abundance to be maintained to protect the ecosystem. For a minimum passing score, a fishery must be maintained at no less than 40% of its un-fished biomass.

TAKING THE BAIT/FORAGE FIRST!

In 2005-6, NCMC conducted an analysis of three federal FMPs for key forage species in New England, the Mid-Atlantic and Pacific coastal regions. The results were published in our report, Taking the Bait: Are America’s Fisheries Out-Competing Predators for their Prey?, which served to launch our national Forage First! campaign. We made specific recommendations for amending FMPs to explicitly account for and protect a forage base for predators. The report was distributed to all members and staff of the councils as well as national and regional fishing and conservation groups. The report’s author, NCMC executive director Pam Lyons Gromen, spearheaded Forage First! She and Ken Hinman made presentations at council meetings, to other NGOs, and at a series of forage fish workshops on both coasts. The report’s 4-step blueprint for amending forage fish management plans to explicitly account for predator/prey relationships and to prioritize the protection of these relationships over allocation to fisheries was widely adopted by other organizations as a model for implementing forage fish conservation.

PROTECTING THE WEST COAST FORAGE BASE

NCMC’s activities at the Pacific Council go back to 2006 and initiation of an amendment to the Coastal Pelagic Species (CPS) plan to prohibit harvest of krill. This action by the council, eventually approved by NMFS in 2009, reinforced our request to the council to convert the CPS plan – which covers sardine, mackerel, anchovy, squid and krill – into a true Forage Fish plan. Since then, the Pacific Council has taken important steps toward ecosystem-based management of west coast forage fish, through the CPS plan and its nascent Fishery Ecosystem Plan.

In 2008-9 we participated in the development of a west coast regional forage fish project under the auspices of the Point Reyes Bird Observatory’s Conservation Science program. Pam Gromen served on the steering committee and helped write the report, “Ecosystem-Based Management of West Coast Forage Species.” NCMC and PRBO made a joint presentation on the results of the report to the Pacific Council in June 2009. We asked the council to review and evaluate the CPS FMP to more fully account for the needs of predators in setting annual catch limits and to add other important, unmanaged forage fish for monitoring purposes. Eventually the council agreed to reevaluate the sardine harvest guidelines and add more forage species (Pacific herring and jack smelt so far) to the FMP. We also began work with the council on developing a new FEP to link monitoring and assessment of a range of California Current forage species in order to establish a baseline for a healthy west coast forage base.

In June of this year, the council took two giant steps forward. First, the council reviewed and approved a draft FEP for adoption in early 2013 and okayed the outline for an Annual State of the California Current Ecosystem Report to inform council management decisions. Second, the council declared a goal of prohibiting new fisheries for currently unmanaged forage species and adopted a strategy for implementing it, either through the FEP or the CPS plan.

A PETITION TO SAVE MENHADEN/”MENHADEN MATTER"

In 2003 we circulated a petition to curtail industrial netting of menhaden in Chesapeake Bay, ultimately gathering close to 5,000 signatures, and took it to the ASMFC’s Annual Meeting that December. We were invited to present our 9-page paper documenting the decline of menhaden and its effect on predators to the Menhaden Management Board. We urged the Board to begin the process of amending its interstate FMP. The Board referred our technical paper to its scientific advisors for review, with instructions to report back for discussion and consideration of possible action at the next meeting. From there, a series of events was set in motion: NCMC formed Menhaden Matter with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Coastal Conservation Association and Environmental Defense (April 2004); ASMFC held a 3-day scientific workshop to assess menhaden’s ecological status, with emphasis on its role as forage in Chesapeake Bay (October 2004); a motion was made to place an immediate freeze on catch as a stop-gap measure while ecological management goals were developed; ASMFC voted to cap industrial harvest in Chesapeake Bay for five years (August 2005). The cap was a precautionary freeze on fishing for menhaden to prevent any increase in the bay catch which would further jeopardize menhaden and its ecological role, and to give researchers time to look into mounting concerns that the lack of menhaden was harming striped bass on their main east coast spawning ground and what to do about it. During this “timeout,” NCMC led efforts to change menhaden science and management to account for its importance as forage, participating in virtually every subsequent meeting and workshop between 2006 and the present having anything to do with menhaden.

A PETITION TO SAVE MENHADEN/”MENHADEN MATTER”

In 2003 we circulated a petition to curtail industrial netting of menhaden in Chesapeake Bay, ultimately gathering close to 5,000 signatures, and took it to the ASMFC’s Annual Meeting that December. We were invited to present our 9-page paper documenting the decline of menhaden and its effect on predators to the Menhaden Management Board. We urged the Board to begin the process of amending its interstate FMP. The Board referred our technical paper to its scientific advisors for review, with instructions to report back for discussion and consideration of possible action at the next meeting. From there, a series of events was set in motion: NCMC formed Menhaden Matter with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Coastal Conservation Association and Environmental Defense (April 2004); ASMFC held a 3-day scientific workshop to assess menhaden’s ecological status, with emphasis on its role as forage in Chesapeake Bay (October 2004); a motion was made to place an immediate freeze on catch as a stop-gap measure while ecological management goals were developed; ASMFC voted to cap industrial harvest in Chesapeake Bay for five years (August 2005). The cap was a precautionary freeze on fishing for menhaden to prevent any increase in the bay catch which would further jeopardize menhaden and its ecological role, and to give researchers time to look into mounting concerns that the lack of menhaden was harming striped bass on their main east coast spawning ground and what to do about it. During this “timeout,” NCMC led efforts to change menhaden science and management to account for its importance as forage, participating in virtually every subsequent meeting and workshop between 2006 and the present having anything to do with menhaden.

WEST COAST HIGHLY MIGRATORY SPECIES FMP

The impetus for the Pacific Council to develop its first-ever management plan for swordfish, tunas, marlin and sharks off the west coast in 2001 was to introduce a new pelagic longline fishery for swordfish and tuna, superseding a longstanding California state ban on the indiscriminate gear. NCMC marshaled support from other west coast groups and bringing in the national Ocean Wildlife Campaign, which we co-founded, to make a prohibition on longlining in federal waters a centerpiece of the plan. Enacted in 2004, it also included other measures we supported; data collection, restrictions on drift nets, a ban on the sale of striped marlin and catch limits for sharks.

RESOLUTION TO PROTECT PELAGIC SARGASSUM

NCMC pushed development of a federal Pelagic Sargassum Plan to forestall commercial exploitation of the pelagic brown algae that provides critical habitat for a host of oceanic species on the continental shelf off the southeastern U.S., as well as to strengthen the position of the U.S. in protecting sargassum as essential habitat on the high seas (Sargasso Sea). Working with the South Atlantic Council, we got a U.S. ban on commercial harvest approved in 2004. The next year, NCMC drafted a resolution to protect sargassum, convinced the U.S. to sponsor it at the 2005 ICCAT meeting, and secured a position on the U.S. ICCAT delegation to shepherd it through the 44-country body.

CONSERVATION IN A FISH-EAT-FISH WORLD (1999-2000)

Following release of the EPAP report, NCMC organized a workshop on managing related predator and prey species in marine fisheries, inviting policy makers and scientists from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the New England and Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Councils, and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC). A year later we published the proceedings under the title Conservation in a Fish Eat-Fish World. Along with general recommendations for making changes to FMPs in order to assess the effects of fishing on other species in the food web, we used Atlantic menhaden as a case study and suggested specific management changes to protect the health of its principal predators, most notably striped bass.

ECOSYSTEM PRINCIPLES ADVISORY PANEL

NCMC president Ken Hinman was appointed to represent the conservation community on the Ecosystem Principles Advisory Panel (EPAP), assembled by Congress through the Sustainable Fisheries Act of 1996. In 1999, the panel produced its seminal Report to Congress, Ecosystem-Based Fishery Management, calling on each federal fishery management council to develop a Fishery Ecosystem Plan (FEP) for its region and laying out clear ecosystem principles to guide these plans. As a co-author of the report, Hinman made sure it recommended actions that fishery managers could take in the near-term, recognizing that moving to an ecosystem approach to managing and conserving marine fisheries would be an incremental process. A first step, the report emphasized, would be to consider predator-prey interactions affected by fishing under existing fishery management plans (FMPs).

“GETTING AHEAD OF THE CURVE” IN THE PACIFIC

NCMC invited over 130 fishery experts, scientists, managers, fishermen and conservationists to Monterey, California in November 1996 to discuss the need for greater ocean-wide conservation of large, highly migratory fish in the Pacific Ocean. Trends in the 4 Pacific fisheries revealed fishing for tunas, billfishes and sharks to be increasing and expected to increase into the future. Compounding the threat was the lack of up-to-date and complete information to assess the status of the stocks. Finally, a review of existing Pacific fisheries management organizations exposed multiple gaps – geographic and functional – in the international conservation of these fish. In an attempt to “get ahead of the curve” and head off the widespread overfishing that occurred in Atlantic fisheries, NCMC published the symposium proceedings with recommendations for a cohesive management strategy, including: ratification of the UN Agreement on Highly Migratory Fish Stocks; better coordination among regional fisheries commissions; expansion of treaties to include less commercial species such as billfish and sharks; and the use of multi-lateral trade measures to enforce international agreements.

SHARK CONSERVATION, INCLUDING A BAN ON FINNING

In 1993, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), at the urging of NCMC, instituted a Fishery Management Plan for 39 species of Atlantic sharks. The federal plan set catch limits for commercial and recreational fishermen, yet the number of large coastal sharks, already low, continued to drop. An alarming rise in the number of sharks killed just for their fins in U.S. water led us, working with our partners in the Ocean Wildlife Campaign, to successfully persuade Congress to pass the “Shark Finning Prohibition Act of 2000”. However, a loophole allowed U.S. vessels to purchase shark fins on the high seas and land them in U.S. ports. We helped close it with the Shark Conservation Act of 2011, which also strengthens enforcement of the shark finning ban by requiring sharks to be landed with their fins naturally attached. In addition, sanctions can be imposed on nations that have not implemented shark fishing regulations consistent with those placed on U.S. fishermen. U.S. actions to prohibit shark finning have led to similar actions in the international arena.

EAST COAST AND GULF LONGLINE CLOSURES TO MINIMIZE BYCATCH

In 2000, the National Marine Fisheries Service enacted federal regulations closing 133,000 square miles of U.S. coastal waters to longlining. The chain of events leading to the longline closures can be traced to 1993, when NCMC co-founded the Marine Fish Conservation Network and successfully passed 1996 amendments to the Magnuson Act making bycatch reduction a new mandate. We exhaustively researched longline controls to minimize bycatch and put forth specific recommendations for closing areas of highest bycatch in our 1998 report, Ocean Roulette. When NMFS failed to act, we sued the agency for violating the law and, in a 1999 settlement, secured large closed areas off the southeast coast and in the Gulf of Mexico, closures that reduced bycatch of billfish by up to 75% and are credited with helping restore swordfish to the east coast.

AMENDING THE MAGNUSON ACT TO REGULATE TUNA FISHING

Over our objections, the original Magnuson Act excluded tuna in order to justify U.S. tuna boats invading the waters of other nations. But unregulated fishing for tuna off our shores not only put tuna stocks at risk but also inhibited conservation of other big fish, 3 namely billfish, swordfish and sharks, routinely killed in the tuna longline fisheries, whether foreign or our own. NCMC initiated a drive to repeal the tuna exclusion and extend to tuna the same conservation and management benefits afforded all other fisheries under the Act. We testified before Congress and met with staff numerous times. In October 1990, the lawmakers made a dramatic reversal in U.S. policy, giving U.S. managers authority to manage tuna and regulate tuna fishing bycatch.

INTERNATIONAL BILLFISH SYMPOSIUM

The need for greater global cooperation to conserve wide-ranging species of marlin and swordfish, in the face of equally widespread uncertainty as to the health of these fisheries, led us to sponsor an International Billfish Symposium in 1988 in Kona, Hawaii. The historic gathering of the world’s foremost billfish authorities attracted 160 scientists, managers, conservationists and fishermen from 15 countries. A total of 60 papers were delivered and discussed during the week-long conference, covering trends in the fisheries, the status of billfish populations, research needs and priorities, and management strategies. The very latest studies by scientists from every corner of the globe were presented. We published the papers and panel discussions the following year, two hardcover volumes that stood for over a decade as the most complete source of information on billfish. For his work in organizing the five-day conference, NCMC’s Ken Hinman was awarded The Billfish Foundation’s Conservation Award in November 1988.

ATLANTIC BILLFISH FISHERY MANAGEMENT PLAN

The federal plan for conserving Atlantic billfish got underway in 1985, as we worked to include as a primary goal maintaining an abundance of blue and white marlin and sailfish for the recreational fishery. The social and economic value of catch-and-release fishing, which far outweighs any commercial value and has a negligible impact on the stock, argued for a unique approach to managing billfish. On top of that, the incidental catch of billfish in expanding U.S. pelagic longline fisheries, along with an emerging commercial market for marlin in the U.S., made a ban on sale of Atlantic billfish a must. NCMC recognized that taking away the incentive to target or land billfish for commerce was the most effective tool then available to conserve these fish. The no-sale billfish plan became law in 1990, helping protect the future of billfishing in the Atlantic.

ATLANTIC STRIPED BASS CONSERVATION ACT

In 1980, NCMC hosted a Striped Bass Symposium primarily to address the role of environmental changes in the disappearance of striped bass. Out of this effort, the NCMC worked with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to develop a plan for striped bass, ultimately leading to the Atlantic Striped Bass Conservation Act of 1984, helping to put the iconic striped bass on the road to recovery.

THE BEGINNING

NCMC co-founder Chris Weld fished extensively for swordfish, bluefin tuna, marlin and sailfish. “Swordfishing on Nantucket Shoals and Georges Bank made me aware of the tremendously destructive fishery being prosecuted by foreign vessels and the need to establish a 200-mile-limit,” he recalls. “At the time there were no conservation organizations dedicated to fishery issues. Along with Frank Carlton and with the encouragement of others, we incorporated NCMC as a non-profit organization. NCMC’s first action was to convene the 2 organizers of 40 major fishing tournaments to encourage catch and-release fishing. Our first two programs focused on bluefin tuna conservation and the establishment of a 200-mile-limit. The former got us involved with ICCAT [Frank was one of the first U.S. Commissioners to the International Convention for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas] and the second with the drafting of the original Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976, which established federal authority to manage and conserve the nation’s fishery resources.”