HR4800-119

What This Bill Does

The Fisheries Modernization Act amends section 312 of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. It adds infrastructure-related cause as a covered fishery-disaster cause, defined as operation or failure of federal or state infrastructure such as flood control systems, spillways, levees, and diversions that measurably disrupt commercial or subsistence fishery activity, aquatic habitat, or water quality. It specifically names red swamp crawfish and white river crawfish fisheries, directing disaster determinations to consider hydrological conditions, water-quality degradation, extreme flooding or drought, and other environmental disruptions that directly affect viability. It also preserves existing eligibility for marine or anadromous fisheries, so the new freshwater and infrastructure language expands rather than narrows the disaster program.

Who Benefits and How

Red swamp crawfish producers benefit because their fishery is expressly named for fishery resource disaster consideration. White river crawfish producers benefit from the same explicit eligibility language for environmental and hydrological disruptions. Commercial freshwater fishers benefit because infrastructure operation or failure can now support disaster relief eligibility. Subsistence fishing communities benefit if water infrastructure failures or diversions damage fishery activity, habitat, or water quality.

Who Bears the Burden and How

NOAA fishery disaster officials must evaluate infrastructure-related causes and crawfish-specific environmental data in disaster requests. Federal water infrastructure operators may face more scrutiny when flood systems, spillways, levees, or diversions damage fisheries. State water agencies may be part of the causal record when state infrastructure operation disrupts fishery viability. Federal taxpayers bear the cost if expanded eligibility increases fishery resource disaster assistance.

Key Provisions

• Adds infrastructure-related cause to Magnuson-Stevens fishery resource disaster definitions.
• Defines infrastructure-related cause to include federal or state flood control systems, spillways, levees, and diversions.
• Expands disaster consideration for red swamp crawfish and white river crawfish fisheries.
• Protects existing marine and anadromous fishery disaster eligibility from being limited by the freshwater expansion.