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U.S. Code as of:
01/19/04
Section 5101. Findings and purpose
(a) Findings
The Congress finds the following:
(1) Coastal fishery resources that migrate, or are widely
distributed, across the jurisdictional boundaries of two or more
of the Atlantic States and of the Federal Government are of
substantial commercial and recreational importance and economic
benefit to the Atlantic coastal region and the Nation.
(2) Increased fishing pressure, environmental pollution, and
the loss and alteration of habitat have reduced severely certain
Atlantic coastal fishery resources.
(3) Because no single governmental entity has exclusive
management authority for Atlantic coastal fishery resources,
harvesting of such resources is frequently subject to disparate,
inconsistent, and intermittent State and Federal regulation that
has been detrimental to the conservation and sustainable use of
such resources and to the interests of fishermen and the Nation
as a whole.
(4) The responsibility for managing Atlantic coastal fisheries
rests with the States, which carry out a cooperative program of
fishery oversight and management through the Atlantic States
Marine Fisheries Commission. It is the responsibility of the
Federal Government to support such cooperative interstate
management of coastal fishery resources.
(5) The failure by one or more Atlantic States to fully
implement a coastal fishery management plan can affect the status
of Atlantic coastal fisheries, and can discourage other States
from fully implementing coastal fishery management plans.
(6) It is in the national interest to provide for more
effective Atlantic State fishery resource conservation and
management.
(b) Purpose
The purpose of this chapter is to support and encourage the
development, implementation, and enforcement of effective
interstate conservation and management of Atlantic coastal fishery
resources.
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