Possible areas of improvement. The committee is also in alaska later this month in a virtue from stakeholders and additional hearings throughout the country this fall. I would like to first welcome both of our witnesses, dr. John quinn and mr. Chris oliver, noaa assistant administrator for fisheries also known as the administrator. 11 years ago created the ccc. The ccc can you leadership of the Regional Fisheries Management Council to discuss a common interest and im pleased to have dr. Quinn here today to discuss consensus views of the eighth council of the msa reauthorization. Im also pleased to introduce chris oliver, firstever alaskan to permit to hold the position of the assistant administrator for fisheries before becoming director, chris spent 27 years working at the Management Council as the executive director and i can tell you we are thrilled to have you in this very important position. Based on its work in the gulf of mexico at the beginning of the career with the largess and best managed fishery with confidence under his leadership the last american interests will be well represented in the concerns and perspective of the commercial charter recreation alike will be valued. For so many alaskans and their families in so many throughout the country, phishing is a way of life. As i mentioned many times, our fisheries are by far the largest in the nation. Id like to say alaska is a superpower seafood constituting over 50, almost close to 60 of all domestic landing and tens of thousands of jobs. Many communities are fisheries at the back for their economy. It is my intention to make sure the reauthorization guarantees continued strong coastal communities not only in alaska but throughout the country. Congress considers whether or not the msa is important that we not rest on previous games. In the last time says the nsa was authorized, legislation able to support the technology has not. Specifically as it relates to Data Collection and analytical tools with better understanding, the health of the stocks and how they can assist in that regard as well as reducing administrative burdens on our fishing industry are topics ripe for discussion and possible elements of the reauthorization. In addition, as they continue the fishery resources across the United States, we must ensure that our nations fisheries and Management Systems the stable food supply, recreational opportunities and plentiful fishing and processing jobs that provide for braver coastal communities. I want to thank her witnesses again for being here. I now recognize the Ranking Member for any Opening Statements may have. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thanks to her witnesses for being here this morning to discuss the important issue of reauthorizing magnusonstevens act. The original name teen 70s fact help explode fish in a Foreign Place in u. S. Waters and protect our important fishery resource is. We come to understand the importance of managing our fisheries and preserving these incredibly important natural resources. The authorizations are successfully rebuilt several fish populations to a healthy sustainable level to the benefit of close communities. But we still have overfishing and over fish populations and we should also seek out ways to improve the Management Systems we create. They need to determine what is working, what needs improvement and ways to improve fishery management is why we are all here today. I regret i cant spend as much time at the hearing this morning as i would like due to a scheduling conflict. I look forward to work see what our witnesses had to care for us. Michigan like the rest of the country is full of hunters and anglers. Every year, nearly one pointed at you and anglers fish on the great lakes and there are roughly 1900 charter boats operating there. This activity is estimated to have a 7 billion impact on the surrounding economy and supports about 50,000 jobs. While we michiganders are typically targeting walleye, trout, perch and muskies where we live, their many of us who travel to states like florida and alaska to enjoy saltwater fishing opportunities. Michigan also has a very robust roaming Product Manufacturing industry that depends on vibrant coastal communities and wellmanaged federal fisheries. Finally, michigan like much of the rest of the country is full of seafood lovers. We want to be sure the fin fish and shellfish that we purchased at market, much of which comes from states like alaska and florida is spread other countries is responsibly harvested. So how we manage our federal fisheries matters to the folks in michigan. What we do about this gorge of the legal unreported or unregulated fishing occurring in the waters of other countries and on the high seas also matters a great deal to us. Conserving these resources for Sustainable Management so they can continue to support the businesses and communities that rely on them matters to folks in michigan. The Sustainable Management dismay future we are using science driven process are Fisheries Management is complex and needs to account for the interactions between different pcs, between species and their habitats. Understanding those many interactions takes a lot of study and an awful lot of data, which requires a lot of moderating. It is important to look for ways to leverage developments in technology and science to do the critical job of managing our federal fisheries better. Only by gathering and utilizing all the hard mental information necessary can we understand the ocean, the coastal ecosystems that provide us with this important and delicious natural resources. Mr. Chairman, want to mention while i understand most freshwater fishery issues are not within the purview of this committee, have introduced a bill called the Great Lakes FisheryResearch Authorization act of 2017. This legislation referred to the committee on the environment will solidify the basis upon which fisheries in the great lakes are managed by augmenting current data gathering methods and utilizing new cuttingedge technologies. It is my hope as part of this important msa reauthorization process we might have some cross colonization of ideas and approaches to conservation and management between Great Lakes Fisheries and federal saltwater fisheries. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you him is thank you on the senator peters. And now i ask senator nelson, Ranking Member of the Commerce Committee would like to make an Opening Statement as well. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Just a couple comments. One of the great things about this committee is the broad jurisdiction that it has in areas that are so important to the country as a whole. You think about this. The 1970s, and their senator said three from washington. There is senators demand from alaska. And they knew that there is a problem in new england and senator murphy syria because it was getting overfished. And so, they set about to do something about it and that is more than three decades ago. We are the beneficiaries of that kind of bipartisan effort, clearly, mr. Chairman, your state of alaska is one of the most fisheries around. By the way, that is one of the reasons we have one of the most Important Reasons of why we have the u. S. Coast guard out there. It not only is given the task from the United States navy of protecting our National Security, but it is there to protect that big, big fishing fleet. And then, its interesting that the members of the committee, we have a number of members that represent landlocked states. They dont have a direct outlet to the ocean. Yes, you are the great lakes. But yet, they participate and understand the importance of the magnusonstevens act. And so, thank you for having this hearing. And of course, my state when it comes to downright recreational charter boats as well as commercial fishing, we are known as the capital of the fishing world. That sounds more impressive than the superpower seafood. [laughter] i can speak for senator wicker that there is a great deal that comes from the livelihood of the people along the gulf and in the case of the atlantic when senator markey comes back all up and down the atlantic. The goal phase such an important resource of all types that we know we have to protect it. Interestingly, also, the gulf happens to be off the florida, the largest testing and Training Range for the United States military in the world. And so, we have for our National Security sake likewise reasons to protect bad goals. I will close by saying that one of the greatest challenges that i saw was when 5 Million Barrels of oil were spilled in the goal and that immediately affected the livelihoods of a lot of people not only in the fishing industry, but also is cut out an entire season of our Tourism Industry on the gold coast because people thought the beaches were covered with oil. It is a unique environment in this committee is particularly suited to protect this kind of ocean environment and so i am very grateful that you are bringing up for discussion the magnusonstevens act peered thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, senator nelson. I want to again welcome our witnesses today. Mr. Chris oliver, assistant administrator for the fishery. I want to commend and express my appreciation to secretary rice for the selection of chris. I dont think you could have found a more qualified, capable director and dr. John quinn, chair of the Council Coordination committee at northeast Fisheries Management council. You will each have five minutes to deliver an oral statement. The longer written statement will be included in the record if you so desire. Mr. Oliver, the floor is yours. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. I participated in the 1996 and 2006 reauthorization processes in my previous role and wallet were in a different hat today in this administration has yet to take formal positions on specific issues, my fundamental is remain built on the success of the act as evidenced by Sustainable Management in the pacific fisheries and fisheries across the United States. I would like to describe some of the Agency Successes under the act, but i want to focus on some of the challenges that remain. It has been an outstanding success through the partnership with the Councils Commission and other stakeholders we effectively ended overfishing in this country by rebuilding fish ducks across the board in ensuring sustainable supply for the nation and the future. The magnuson act created broad goals through the magnusonstevens act in fishery management and unique Management Structure around the Regional Councils. I can personally attest to the body of the system which encourages collaborative bottomup process were in putting decision such as fishermen, other fishery stakeholders, and the federal government. Working together, it is brought back numerous resources and fisheries across our country. Im especially proud of viacom ocean is where approaches have led them to be widely recognized as one of the most successfully managed fisheries in the world, yet we have challenges remaining. As an example, this species rebuilt several important stock and significant portions of the harvest in the water due to an outdated regulation and also constraints. We have to find ways to maximize the allowable harvest smaller fisheries that import may do so within our overall longterm conservation goals. This is the case for some of our commercial fisheries as well. The Recreational Fishing is among the nations favorite pastimes in a major contributor to the economy at all levels. We are pleased to announce we are partnering with the atlantic state Fishery Commission to host a National Summit on saltwater Recreational Fisheries in march 2018. While limits are a cornerstone of Sustainable Management, we have to recognize when she under the associated managers has been a major change in the challenge for many fisheries and as well as Recreational Fisheries, particularly where it can be much more difficult to collect a timely report and where management goals may differ fundamentally from commercial fisheries. Additional flexibility in how we apply this Accountability Measures in annual catch limits as those rebuilding schedules could expand our collective toolbox and ability to address many of the issues which have been raised in reauthorization discussions. I assure you we stand ready to assist any way we can and those approaches are being considered. Americas seafood industry set the global standard for sustainability. However, the majority of the food we consume commented port mother some opportunities to enhance while stock harvest, with a significant headroom and agriculture production and we are already making marine agriculture development. Priority within the agency through various operational and budgetary incentives. Ordination of the regulatory permitting process is a key area where we can be more day. With these initiatives and regulation of our wild stock, fisheries, we can position the nation to make inroads on the seafood deficit. The current act works very well for most fisheries. However, i believe their opportunities to provide additional flexibility to allow us to more effectively manage some of those fisheries, particularly those that have different catch accounting challenges or can benefit generally from alternative management approaches. Although challenges remained in the fisheries in the near term, overall the benefits for the resources come industries that supports and our economy in general can be realized that this populations grow and limits increase in the longer term. In that sense, i believe we can have it both ways. I believe that we can maximize opportunities take opportunities to maximize our domestic harvest potential without compromising the longterm sustainability of the resources they manage. I and noaa fisheries are working throughout this reauthorization process to achieve the goal and that concludes my opening comments, mr. Chairman. I will be happy to try to answer questions. Thank you, director oliver. Dr. Kwame. Thank you very much, chairman sullivan to make it never peters did and john quinn from here to testify on the court naming committee. The director of program at the university of Massachusetts School of law is right next door to the leaping fish ports in the nation and have been involved in issues the last 30 years as a lawyer at a state legislator in the last five years as a member of the management account. Commercial recreation and subsistence fisheries are key contributors to communities in the nations economy. The councils are the cornerstone of the regional system created and as a group we are strong believers in its benefit. Today ill highlight a few issues that are detailed in a written statement. The need for management flexibility, the import the public process and the need for adequate resources. We begin with management flexibility. The wide variety of fisheries in our country means that no challenges will work in all cases. A strategy should be to create a flexible Legal Framework with a wide range of management solutions. This is true when it comes to providing Sustainable Fisheries here to batman requires that the Poor Condition must be rebuilt. The arbitrary timeline can cause problems and imagine that every homeowner but only purchasing a home would work for some. It would not work for all. I want to make it clear that we do not seek building requirements, but believed targeted changes that the law would enable the development of better rebuilding plans. Not just the councils that reach this conclusion. The issue is a report by the National Research council in 2014. Theres also a need for flexibility at the tactical level. They need to consider a wide variety of management tools without burdensome requirements. Acl may not be the best tools to manage all fisheries. Finally, most recent use of the permits to conduct Scientific Research that leaves the management solutions. Requirements of the efp process would greatly reduce the ability to get approved in a timely manner. Fishermen and their communities that suffer as a result. As for the public sentiment clearly a transparent process is critical to maintaining public trust. They need to be met in a variety of ways with specific webcast requirement leading to additional expense and ignore the technical difficulties when Holding Meetings in isolated fishing ports. Allpurpose actions are carefully examined before implementation. The need for analysis however duplicate those in the other half of the law. We believe that alternative analysis should be done in the framework of the act rather than the pot. 40 years of experience the councils provide a well known timetested form for resolving fishery issues. They develop regulations that limit fishing that are often sidestepped. If all federal fishing regulations are promu