HR531-119

What This Bill Does

The South Pacific Tuna Treaty Act of 2025 updates the South Pacific Tuna Act of 1988. It revises definitions for fishing, closed areas, fishing area, and regional terms and conditions. It adds new prohibited acts for violating regional terms and conditions or authorized fishing-effort and catch limits, repeals obsolete exceptions, updates criminal-offense cross references, and broadens civil penalties so more treaty violations can lead to liability. It also revises license administration by requiring the Secretary to forward applications that comply with procedures, tying fee payment to treaty procedures, and allowing applications to be withheld when an owner or charterer is in bankruptcy without assurances, lacks normal maritime liability insurance, or has unpaid final penalties.

The bill rewrites confidentiality and reporting rules for information supplied by the treaty Administrator, observers, and regulated persons. The Secretary must keep that information confidential but may disclose it for court orders, enforcement, Coast Guard homeland-security missions, fishery management, treaty administration, international fisheries organizations, written authorization, or aggregate reporting that protects submitter identities. The bill updates closed-area stowage requirements, authorizes Commerce and State to provide technical assistance, training, capacity building, private-sector partnership facilitation, and other support to Pacific Island Parties, allows procedures for reviewing additional fishing-access agreements, and authorizes such sums as necessary for fiscal year 2025 and later treaty implementation.

Who Benefits and How

Pacific Island governments, Forum Fisheries Agency officials, international fisheries management organizations, treaty administrators, Coast Guard enforcement staff, NOAA fisheries managers, compliant U.S. tuna vessel operators, U.S. commercial tuna companies seeking license clarity, and Pacific Island fisheries-development programs benefit from clearer licensing rules, enforceable catch and effort limits, protected data channels, technical assistance, and capacity-building authority.

Who Bears the Burden and How

U.S. purse seine tuna vessel operators, tuna vessel owners, tuna vessel charterers, operators with unpaid penalties, uninsured operators, bankrupt vessel owners, fishing-data submitters, NOAA licensing staff, Commerce enforcement staff, and U.S. taxpayers bear compliance, penalty, insurance, confidentiality, licensing, and funding burdens because the bill tightens treaty terms, expands civil liability, conditions license forwarding, protects confidential data, and authorizes continuing implementation appropriations.

Key Provisions

• Amends South Pacific Tuna Act definitions for closed areas, fishing activity, fishing area, and regional terms and conditions.
• Adds prohibited acts for violating regional license terms or authorized fishing-effort and catch limits.
• Expands civil-penalty coverage and updates criminal-offense cross references.
• Revises vessel license forwarding, treaty fee payment, bankruptcy, insurance, and unpaid-penalty conditions.
• Requires confidentiality for observer, Administrator, and regulated-person data while authorizing specified enforcement, security, treaty, and aggregate disclosures.
• Authorizes technical assistance, training, capacity building, private-sector partnership facilitation, and other support for Pacific Island Parties.
• Allows procedures for reviewing additional fishing-access agreements under the treaty.
• Authorizes such sums as necessary for treaty implementation for fiscal year 2025 and each fiscal year thereafter.