Expressing the sense of the Congress regarding the imposition of sanctions on nations that are undermining the effectiveness of conservation and management measures for Atlantic highly migratory species, including marlin, adopted by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas and that are threatening the continued viability of United States commercial and recreational fisheries.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me time.

Madam Speaker, certainly I would like to express my appreciation for the outstanding leadership of our colleague, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Saxton), as the chief sponsor of this legislation, not only as the former chairman of our Subcommittee on Fisheries Conservation, Wildlife and Oceans, but always a chief spokesman for the needs of the fisheries programs of our Nation.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong support of House Resolution 268, a resolution expressing the sense of congress regarding the imposition of trade sanctions against countries who undermine the effectiveness of the International Convention on the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas. The International Commission was established

in 1969 and is responsible for the conservation of some 30 species of tuna, swordfish and many other times of highly-migratory fish.

Thirty-six years ago, the United States demonstrated its leadership in marine conservation by being the first to sign the international convention. Later that year, we were joined by two other countries, Japan and South Africa. Today, the number of contracting and cooperating parties has grown to 39 nations from across the world, signifying a global recognition of the importance of a large-scale collective effort to protect and carefully manage our international fisheries.

Madam Speaker, the ICCAT Commission is charged with the lofty responsibility of undertaking scientific research, compiling statistics and monitoring a large number of highly-migratory species that inhabit the vast Atlantic Ocean. The types of species under the Commission's purview of diverse, having varying biological characteristics, migration patterns and exploitation pressures from different countries, which makes effective management very complicated.

The Commission directs much effort in devising plans and providing recommendations that establish acceptable fishing levels aimed at ensuring maximum sustainable catches for all. Since their establishment some 33 years ago, the Commission has been working hard to provide accurate information and management advice to fishing countries of the world, with the number of recommendations growing exponentially each year.

Despite the Commission's considerable efforts, however, several Atlantic highly-migratory species are still in jeopardy. The Atlantic white marlin, a major sport fishery for the United States, is nearly at an endangered status, and not from U.S. sports fishermen. An estimated 95 percent of the Atlantic marlin catches come from other nations, both from targeted fishing, and, sadly, as bycatch.

I have always had very strong feelings about the issue of bycatch. It is inconceivable, Madam Speaker, to me, that some find it acceptable to simply throw out these fish, just because there is no perceived market value for them. Perhaps my point of view on this stems from my heritage as an islander, whose way of life, means of nourishment and culture centers almost exclusively on the resources from the ocean, considers the discard of any fish as a despicable waste.

Madam Speaker, illegal, unreported and unregulated, which is known as IUU, fishing, is also of great concern to me. Countries who engage in such fishing significantly compromise the ability to monitor fish stocks accurately, making it very difficult for the Commission to advise on setting catch limits. IUU fishing is a serious concern to the Atlantic species, as well as to the fisheries of the great Pacific Ocean.

The most unfortunate fact, in my opinion, Madam Speaker, is that even some of the contracting member countries have continually violated the convention to which they themselves have signed. Brazil, China, Cote D'Ivore and Spain continue to overfish Atlantic white marlin, and even the European Union refuses to accept the recommendations by the Commission for Atlantic blue tuna catch limits. These practices are unfair to the rest of the participating nations who fully cooperate and value the Convention and actively support international conservation efforts. They are unfair to and disrespectful to the internationally- recognized ICCAT Commission, and they are unfair to our future generations that will continue to rely on our ocean resources for food.

Madam Speaker, I fully support the imposition of trade sanctions on these countries that violate and undermine the convention. Repeatedly, we have seen laws, rules, and regulations ignored because there is no means to effectively enforce them. Perhaps sanctions are the ``teeth'' the U.S. can give the convention so that violating countries will begin to take marine conservation seriously.

I am a proud cosponsor of this resolution and may even propose a similar resolution for the Pacific fisheries at the appropriate time, as we have many similar issues there as well.

I thank my good friends and colleagues on the Committee on Resources, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Saxton), the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone), and the chairman of our subcommittee, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Gilchrest) for their leadership on this issue, and I urge Members to support this resolution.

I even suggested, Madam Speaker, that we ought to extend our EE zone from 200 to 1,000 miles, to make a point of the fact that our country is the only country that is sincerely making every effort to see that when we say conservation, we mean it sincerely, and not just a lot of rhetoric.

Madam Speaker, I do want to thank my staff, Dr. Malia Rivera, a Sea Grant fellow in my office, for the outstanding job she has done in advising me on issues pertaining to fisheries, and again I thank my good friend from New Jersey, and I urge my colleagues to support this resolution.

Madam Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Madam Speaker, again, to make the point in the course of our hearings, with due respect to the members of the administration that testified before our hearing that was held, they are making every sincere effort to get other countries and members of the convention to comply, but how long have we been doing this? This is for the past 10 years, from previous administrations. We are still making every sincere effort, but it seems with no real substantive results.

I ask my good friend, the gentleman from New Jersey, what else can we do? As I suggested earlier, we need to put teeth on the substance of this convention, or else we are just going to be spinning our wheels for another 10-year period, and still with no results.

Here is the problem: We now have fishing vessels from the Atlantic fishing in the Pacific. Why? Because some of these fish have been overfished. There are moratoriums placed on them.

We have serious problems, even in the Pacific. Fifty-four percent of the tuna now caught in the world is from the Pacific Ocean, and this is just tuna. The fact is that if we are not taking seriously the substantial of the problems of conservation of various species of fish, we definitely are going to have some very serious problems.

I thank the gentleman for his expressing the concerns about the fishing, but I ask my good friend, we have been spinning our wheels for the last 10 years, are we going to be doing the same thing for the next 10 years?

Madam Speaker, if the gentleman would again yield, and I thank him for yielding, and I sincerely hope that perhaps, even after expressing the sense of the Congress in our resolution, that maybe the next phase is to put in teeth by saying by statute that we do this. Because again, despite all of the good efforts that perhaps the administration may be making on this issue, it is not just from this administration, but even from previous administrations, I think we are tired of the rhetoric. It is time to now put teeth in this issue and make sure that if we are going to be the only Nation complying with the substance of the convention while the others can still do what they want, I think there is a tremendous inequity in this effort.

Again, I thank the gentleman for bringing this point to the attention of our colleagues.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 268) expressing the sense of the Congress regarding the imposition of sanctions on nations that are undermining the effectiveness of conservation and management measures for Atlantic highly migratory species, including marlin, adopted by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas and that are threatening the continued viability of United States commercial and recreational fisheries, as amended.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on the concurrent resolution under consideration.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

H. Con. Res. 268 is a resolution expressing the sense of Congress regarding the imposition of sanctions on nations that are undermining the effectiveness of conservation and management members for Atlantic highly migratory species.

Madam Speaker, the annual meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, known as ICCAT, will take place in a few weeks. The United States delegation must go into this meeting with a strong position that noncompliance by nations that are members of ICCAT is unacceptable. The U.S. has been a world leader in pushing for conservation measures at ICCAT. In addition, we have put restrictions on our fishermen, both recreational and commercial, to implement these international conservation measures.

Again and again, the U.S. has restricted our fishermen and then had to watch as foreign nations allowed their fishermen to break the internationally agreed upon rules.

Not only have our fishermen suffered as a result of noncompliance by other nations, but the fish themselves have suffered. Atlantic white marlin populations, in particular, are at approximately 12 percent of their historic levels. Blue marlin are at about 40 percent of their historic levels. This is totally unacceptable, and, I might add, unnecessary.

Despite playing by the rules and pushing for conservation, the U.S. fishermen were faced with a petition last year to list white marlin under the Endangered Species Act. Rebuilding plans for both white marlin and blue marlin have been put in place, but international fleets do not comply.

It is clear that U.S. conservation efforts are not enough. Our fishermen, both recreational and commercial, played by the rules and were still almost shut down because of international indifference.

We need to make sure that all nations that fish for Atlantic highly- migratory species play by the rules, or face the consequences. The U.S. is one of the biggest markets for these nations, and we should send a strong signal that we will not tolerate continued noncompliance.

This resolution urges the President to continue to work with our trading partners through the international fisheries management bodies to achieve conservation goals. In addition, the resolution calls on the President, when those international efforts do not work, to use all methods available, including trade sanctions against those countries which choose not to play by the internationally agreed upon rules.

This resolution sends the message to those nations that do not consider conservation to be important that there must be consequences to their actions. In addition, it sends the message to U.S. fishermen that their conservation efforts are consequential, and not for nothing.

I urge Members to support this resolution and to send the U.S. delegation to ICCAT with the task of warning other nations that they need to take conservation seriously.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I would just conclude by saying this, that in our country, many years ago when our country was young, our forefathers enjoyed a huge herd of buffalo in the Midwest States, and because we did not understand that they would not always just be there, we carried out practices that simply eliminated them.

Unfortunately, because of the international pressure that is being placed on these species by the international pelagic longline fleet and the lack of enforcement of agreed upon ICCAT regulations, the same process is currently under way with white marlin, blue marlin, swordfish, Atlantic tuna and other species.

This is a crime which, in my view, must stop, and I do not use the term ``crime'' unadvisedly.

I yield to the gentleman from American Samoa.

Madam Speaker, reclaiming my time, I thank the gentleman for making the eloquent point that he has.

The question is a very good one. That is what this piece of legislation, this resolution is about. It says that, in effect, if the parties who go to ICCAT and make an agreement on the amount, the number, or the amount of tonnage of fish to be taken do not comply with those agreements, then the President is urged to use trade sanctions with regard to fish or other commodities to enforce those agreements, or to provide a penalty against those who do not comply with the agreements that their countries make. It is a huge problem and one that I hope that this resolution will give the administration the necessary muscle that it needs to solve this problem.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from American Samoa for making the point so clearly.

Madam Speaker, I have no further speakers at this time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me time.

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to offer my support for H. Con. Res. 268. International fisheries agreements, including the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, ICCAT, are critical for healthy oceanic food webs, as well as a healthy economy. When fish stocks remain at severely depleted levels, ecosystem structure is altered, and millions of dollars in revenue are lost every year.

We learned in multiple hearings in the Subcommittee on Fisheries Conservation, Wildlife and Oceans, over the last several years, that the Atlantic white marlin stock is in the worst shape of all the species managed by ICCAT. Illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing further aggravates this problem by undermining market prices to a point that our law-abiding commercial fishermen can no longer afford to fish and by forcing noncommercial fishermen to be stringently regulated.

After 40 years of ICCAT management, the Commission has achieved the dubious distinction of allowing two-thirds of the highly-migratory species it oversees to become overfished. The lack of compliance by ICCAT contracting members with ICCAT's own recommendations considerably limits this Commission.

If United States fishermen are expected to adhere to national and international laws while maintaining an economically viable industry, our administration must be willing to take a strong position in support of internationally enforceable recommendations. I have high hopes that this resolution will provide a thorough debate at next month's ICCAT meeting.

I just want to commend my colleague, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Saxton), for this timely resolution. I am proud to be a cosponsor. I urge that the House adopt this resolution.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

(Mrs. CHRISTENSEN asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Madam Speaker, I join my colleague in support of H. Con. Res. 268.

Madam Speaker, the United States has long been a leader in promoting the sustainable harvest of our ocean resources. Unfortunately, not all other countries have been as diligent. We must continue to press for effective conservation and management of our world's fisheries, not only at the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, or ICCAT, but at all international fisheries organizations.

This concurrent resolution, H. Con. Res. 268, gives much-needed support to our U.S. commissioners as they enter into yet another round of difficult international negotiations. Ending illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing, not only of white marlin but all the species managed by ICCAT, is necessary to ensure the long-term sustainability of these fisheries and the United States commercial and recreational industries that depend on them.

I commend my colleague, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Saxton), for this timely resolution, and I urge the House to adopt it.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the ranking member of the subcommittee, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone).

Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from American Samoa (Mr. Faleomavaega).

Madam Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.