Policy Positions Adopted by ABA House of Delegates

 

 

 

OCEANS - MARINE RESOURCES

 

Sponsors:
American Bar Association
Standing Committee on Environmental Law
Section of Business Law
Section of Environment, Energy and Resources
Section of Science and Technology Law
Young Lawyers Division

RESOLVED, that the American Bar Association urges Congress to adopt, as part of a national oceans policy and to ensure that the nation’s living marine resources are not overexploited and that the coastal habitat and marine ecosystems that sustain those resources are protected and preserved for future generations, measures to better protect the integrity of the nation’s marine ecosystems and ensure ecologically sustainable use and development of the nation’s marine resources by enacting legislation that would:

1. Amend the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Management and Conservation Act to pursue ecosystem-based fishery management goals to ensure the continued economic and ecological viability of commercially and recreationally important fish stocks, with an emphasis on protecting the marine ecosystems that support such stocks;
   
2. Eliminate subsidies and legal procedures that encourage over-fishing and adopt innovative mechanisms to promote sustainable fisheries;
   
3. Fund programs to promote and establish statutory goals to improve knowledge of living marine resources necessary to ensuring their sustainable management and use; and
   
4. Create a statutory, scientifically supported national system of marine protected areas, including marine wilderness areas and international marine protected areas.

 

Adopted by the ABA House of Delegates, August 8, 2005, Chicago, IL.

 

For a copy of the complete report, contact Carrie Coleman at scel@staff.abanet.org.