Jack Reed: “today I introduce the Rhode Island Fishermen's Fairness Act of 2005. This legislation would address a serious flaw in…”

“today I introduce the Rhode Island Fishermen's Fairness Act of 2005. This legislation would address a serious flaw in our Nation's regional fisheries management system by adding Rhode Island to the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (MAFMC), which currently consists of representatives from New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina. The MAFMC manages the following 13 species, all of which are landed in Rhode Island: Illex squid, loligo squid, Atlantic mackerel, black sea bass, bluefish, butterfish, monkfish, scup, spiny dogfish, summer flounder, surfclam, ocean quahog, and tilefish. In 2003, the most recent year for which final data are available, Rhode Island fishermen brought in 30 percent of MAFMC landings by weight--more than any of the MAFMC member States except New Jersey, which is responsible for about 60 percent of total MAFMC landings. If Rhode Island fishermen are responsible for a large percentage of overall MAFMC landings, these species make up an even larger proportion of landings within Rhode Island every year. Between 1995 and 2003, MAFMC species represented between 32 percent and 56 percent of all finfish landed in Rhode Island annually, for an average of 44 percent of total landings by weight. In eight of the years between 1990 and 2003, squid, Illex and loligo, was the number one marine species landed in Rhode Island, with a value of between $11.6 million and $20.1 million annually.…”