Bush: eliminate destructive fishing practices
On 3 October President George Bush directed the State and Commerce departments to “further strengthen the efforts of the United States to protect sustainable fisheries and to safeguard their effective use by calling for an end to destructive fishing practices, such as unregulated bottom trawling on the high seas”, according to a White House memorandum.
President Bush has urged the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Secretary of Commerce to work internationally “to eliminate unregulated destructive fishing practices that jeopardise fish stocks and the habitats that support them”.
Specifically, the Secretary of State is directed to work with Regional Fishery Management Organizations (RFMOs) and other cooperative arrangements to establish rules based on sound science to enhance sustainable fishing practices and to end destructive fishing practices, explosives and chemicals that destroy the long-term productivity of ecosystems such as seamounts, corals, and sponge fields.
In addition, the President has called on Congress to send for his signature a reauthorised Act that will end overfishing and rebuild fisheries that are still depleted. The Administration has also sent to the Congress proposed legislation to establish a well-managed system for sustainable offshore aquaculture.
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