Interstate Fisheries Management: Authority, Process and Representation

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) is an interstate compact ratified by the states and approved by the U.S. Congress in 1942 that cooperatively manages marine species that are found in multiple states’ waters (out to 3 miles from shore). The ASMFC includes all the Atlantic Coast states from Maine to Florida as well as the District of Columbia and the Potomac River Fisheries Commission. NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also serve as voting members. The ASMFC is responsible for managing 27 species such as Atlantic striped bass, Atlantic menhaden, American eel, American shad, cobia, spot, Atlantic croaker, and weakfish. Some of these 27 species are co-managed and jointly managed with the federal fishery management councils and NOAA Fisheries including summer flounder, bluefish, spiny dogfish, coastal sharks, and Spanish mackerel. A complete list of managed species can be found on ASMFC’s website.

Each state is represented on the commission by three commissioners: the director of the state’s marine fisheries management agency (administrative commissioner), a state legislator, and an individual appointed by the state’s governor to represent stakeholder interests (governor’s appointee). North Carolina’s ASMFC commissioners are Division of Marine Fisheries Director Steve Murphey (administrative commissioner), Sen. Bob Steinburg (legislator), and Jerry Mannen (governor’s appointee). Chris Batsavage serves as Murphey’s ongoing proxy and Mike Blanton serves as Sen. Steinburg’s ongoing proxy. Each state receives one vote to facilitate decision making and to ensure equity, and the state representatives are often allowed time to caucus with each other on a motion before the vote occurs. North Carolina’s participation on the ASMFC is critical to ensure that North Carolina’s fishermen and fisheries resources are considered and adequately protected.

Most of ASMFC’s fisheries decision-making occurs through the Interstate Fisheries Management Program, where species management boards determine management strategies that the states implement through fishing regulations. ASMFC and its management boards are supported by a Law Enforcement Committee, Habitat Committee, species technical committees, fishery management plan development and plan review teams, scientific committees, stock assessment subcommittees, and species advisory panels. Members of these teams, committees, and panels include staff from state and federal fisheries agencies and stakeholders from the member states. Division staff serve on many of these committees and teams and many of the advisory panels include North Carolina stakeholders.

Unlike the federal fishery management councils, which operate under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, ASMFC management operates under the Atlantic Striped Bass Conservation Act (1984) and Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Cooperative Management Act (1993). Both acts recognize the interjurisdictional nature of fishery resources and the necessity of the states and federal government to implement regulations that ensure their conservation and sustainability. As a result of the acts, all Atlantic Coast states that are included in a commission fishery management plan must implement required conservation provisions of the plan or the U.S. secretary of commerce (and the secretary of interior in the case of striped bass) may impose a moratorium for fishing in the noncompliant state’s waters.

The ASMFC faces several management challenges in the coming years, and many of these challenges are those the federal fishery management councils and the division also face. Changing ocean conditions due to climate change is impacting species distributions and survival. Several ASMFC-managed species are overfished or are experiencing overfishing. Habitat and water quality problems are affecting stock productivity and stock rebuilding efforts. And reallocation of species among states and fisheries challenges ASMFC to equitably manage the resource, especially as species distributions change. These challenges make it difficult to satisfy everyone’s needs and sustainably manage the resources that do not recognize state boundaries, but the cooperative work by the ASMFC accomplishes more than the individual efforts by the states.