Protect Our Fisheries: Reinforce Science-Based Marine Management Now

Congress needs to act now to reinforce science-based ocean protections against the "Restoring American Saltwater Angling and Recreation" executive order, which guts the very standards that keep our fisheries viable. The order directs a review of Magnuson-Stevens Act guidelines in ways that could redefine what counts as overfishing and what qualifies as "best available science" — not to improve fisheries management, but to weaken it. Our oceans are under more stress than at any point in recorded history. Shark populations are already a fraction of pre-industrial levels. Marine protected areas could drop from 26% of US waters to just 4% if these rollbacks survive legal challenge. Healthy fisheries don't happen by accident — they are the product of decades of rigorous science and hard-won conservation policy that this order is now dismantling piece by piece. Pass legislation that locks in science-based standards under Magnuson-Stevens, protects the North Atlantic right whale vessel-speed rule, and prevents the conversion of oil rigs into artificial reefs without independent environmental review. The recreational fishing economy this order claims to protect depends entirely on healthy fish populations. You cannot sustain a $1.2 trillion outdoor recreation economy by stripping away the science that sustains it.